


A Working Friendship

by MusicPrincess655



Category: Monsterkind (Webcomic)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Friendship/Love, Gay Male Character, Gen, Inequality, M/M, Male Friendship, Mystery, Protests, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-22
Updated: 2016-03-21
Packaged: 2018-04-14 19:03:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 18
Words: 22,504
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4576188
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MusicPrincess655/pseuds/MusicPrincess655
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which Kip and Wallace form a friendship (and possibly relationship). AKA I was wondering where Monsterkind is going, and this is what I came up with. Continues from 207.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is a Monsterkind fic. I don't own Monsterkind, it is owned by the lovely Taylor C. For now I will rate it K+ for some potential mild violence, but that may change as the story goes on. Continues from 207.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> UPDATE: Had to change Louise's pronouns because of a recent update of Monsterkind that says Louise prefers they/them pronouns

"Okay, Wallace," Kip said, pulling his hand away. "Since I don't work tomorrow, why don't I go with you on a house call?"

"That would be fantastic," Wallace grinned. "Can I swing by your apartment around nine tomorrow?"

"That's fine," Kip told him. He left the apartment and headed back to his own. Not that he hated the company, but he needed a minute to take a deep breath. Alone. He let the door swing shut and leaned against it, letting out his breath in a whoosh. He slid down the door, his hands starting to shake. Molly was right, he was scared, but not just because he didn't know how this was going to turn out. He had other reasons to be frightened.

The next day, he was up before his alarm went off. Soon enough he was pacing, nervous. He knew people had high expectations of him, and he wasn't sure if he could deliver on those. He whipped his head around when he heard a timid knock on his door. Wallace was standing in the doorway, one corner of his mouth turned up in a half smile. He held out a cup of coffee.

"Morning," Wallace said, sounding almost overly cheerful. Kip took a swig of the coffee, surprised to find that it was just the way he liked it. "I went to Cuddy's," Wallace said, rubbing the back of his head as he looked down. "Kate made it."

"Well thanks," Kip said. Caffeine was definitely helping. "Where are we heading?"

"Charlie Flannigan's house," Wallace replied as they walked out of the building. "That's the only place I even got in the door. It didn't end well, as I guess you figured out. But I talked to his roommate, and I'm worried. All I have in my file is that he has a hard time getting a job and suffers from PTSD, but I got a weird vibe when I visited. Something's going on."

Kip looked over. Wallace was staring into the distance, his coffee forgotten and his brow furrowed. What do you know? It seemed like Wallace legitimately wanted to help.

"Charlie Flannigan, huh" Kip said.

"You know him?" Wallace asked.

"Not personally but…I've heard things," Kip told him. "There are rumors…that he was involved in some experiments."

"Experiments?"

"Against his will."

"That's horrible!" Wallace burst out. Kip jumped out of the way as Wallace's coffee spilled everywhere. He had crushed the paper cup. His cheeks were flushed and his eyes were angry. Kip held up his hands defensively.

"Look, Wallace, that's just what I've heard," Kip said. "We'll just have to talk to him."

They had arrived at Charlie and Louise's house. Wallace took a deep breath as he knocked on the door. He relaxed a little when Louise opened the door. They looked surprised to see him.

"Hi, Louise," Wallace said shyly.

"Wallace Foster…I didn't think you would be coming back," they replied. "And you're…Kip Kaizer, aren't you?"

"That's me," Kip answered. "I'm here to help my friend Wallace out. Seems like not a lot of people are willing to trust a human from District A, so I thought I would give them a more friendly face."

Wallace jerked a little when Kip called him his friend, but Kip ignored him. Louise looked at them for a minute, then beckoned them in.

"Charlie's upstairs," they told them. "Why don't you have a seat while I go get him?"

Wallace and Kip sat on the sofa, a respectful distance away from each other. Wallace was focusing on not flipping out about the cuteness of the living room like he had last time. He needed everyone to take him seriously. This could be his real breakthrough.

Louise walked back in, their hand on someone's shoulder. Wallace tensed, but Charlie wasn't about to attack. In fact, he looked pretty demure as he looked apologetically at Wallace.

"Sorry I pushed you," he said huskily.

"No worries," Wallace replied. "I know I must have scared you, being in your house unannounced. But I promise I'm not here to try to take you away from Louise. I really do just want to help."

"Aren't you Kip Kaizer?" Charlie asked, noticing Kip for the first time.

"Yep," Kip answered. "Just trying to give Wallace here a helping hand with his house calls. He's not a bad guy, you know."

"I know. I feel bad about jumping you," Charlie said, looking down. Wallace was struck by how vulnerable and young he looked. "How exactly do you want to help?"

"That's more up to what you want me to do for you," Wallace told him. "If you tell me what you need, I have resources as a social worker to help you. If you want to see a therapist, I can help you get there. If you want help writing a resume or working on interview skills, I can help you. And," he added as a soft afterthought, "if you need legal help, if you need to press charges or anything, I can help you with that too."

"How much do you know about me?" Charlie asked.

"Not much," Wallace replied. "Your file only says that you have a hard time finding a job, you have stress and anxiety issues, and you might have PTSD. I only know what a slip of paper can tell me about you. I'd rather hear your story."

"Would you really?" Charlie said scathingly, but there wasn't any real malice behind it. "I was experimented on. That's why I have, as you put it, PTSD. They took my eye." He pulled up the bangs that concealed an eye that was frozen shut. Wallace gasped. His jaw dropped; he was horrified. How could anyone do that to another person, monster or otherwise? It was unbelievably cruel.

"Why would they do that?" Wallace whispered. His throat was too tight for anything more.

"I fought back, and I almost clawed someone's eye out," Charlie admitted. "I didn't mean to hurt her. I was just scared. I wanted to get away from the cages and being strapped down. I just wanted to get back to Louise." Louise laid their hand on his shoulder. He looked up at them like they were his big sibling.

"But why were you being experimented on in the first place?" Wallace asked. "That has to be illegal."

"I got arrested," Charlie said, his eyes starting to light up with anger. "A bunch of human teenagers jumped me, and I was just trying to get away. The police arrested me, said I attacked the humans."

"All because you're a monster," Wallace said. "That's wrong."

"Well, yeah," Charlie scoffed. "Anyway, I ended up in some kind of lab. That's pretty much the story."

"So I guess my next question is, what kind of help do you want?" Wallace asked. "I've told you what kinds of resources I have. What is it that you want? To press charges against the people that experimented on you?"

"I doubt I would get very far with that, even if I wasn't a monster," Charlie said with a dark chuckle.

"Why?"

"Can't you see it, Wallace?" Charlie asked, exasperated. "I'm pretty sure it was the government that was running experiments."

Wallace sat stunned. He looked at Kip, who shrugged his shoulders as if to say "I thought you already knew."

"But that's…that's illegal. Even for monsters, that's illegal."

"Who cares?" Charlie said, defeated. "We're only monsters, after all."

"I care!" Wallace snapped. "Anyone who could take another person's eye out-and mean to do it-well, they don't deserve to be in government. And God, you must have been just a kid. Who could do that to a kid?" he looked down. This was the first time he had ever been ashamed to be human. How could they call themselves the superior race when they treated other people like this?

Charlie looked taken aback, then his face changed, almost as if he was seeing Wallace in a new light. He smiled grudgingly.

"If you still want to help, maybe I should see that therapist," Charlie said. "Sometimes I flash back to that lab…I don't always feel like I'm holding myself together. And I get so scared, sometimes I lash out without even meaning to. Like I did with you."

"That's fine. I can get in touch with my boss and see about setting you up with an appointment," Wallace told him. "I could probably call back with more details by tonight. If you think of anything else, anything at all, I'll leave my number for you to call. Even if you just want to talk. I'll be there."

"Maybe you're not such a bad guy, Wallace," Charlie said, and this time, when he gave Wallace a smile, he smiled for real. Wallace smiled back. Underneath it all, this kid was really very sweet. Wallace hoped talking to a therapist would help him. "Are you going to tell anyone that I attacked you?"

"I see no reason to. After all, I'm the one who barged into your house," Wallace replied, giving Charlie a wink. Charlie visibly relaxed.

"Thanks."

"And Wallace?" Charlie said as he walked him and Kip to the door. "I'm sorry I called you scum and worthless. You're not."

"Thanks, Charlie. I look forward to proving it to you," Wallace replied. And he and Kip were out of there, walking down the street. "Hey Kip? Can I buy you lunch? I want to thank you for doing this for me."

"You don't have to do that, Wallace," Kip replied.

"Please, I insist. You don't know how much you just helped me."

"Fine then," Kip gave in. "Let's go to Cuddy's and tell Molly how it went. I don't want her bopping me on the head all day. Sometimes she doesn't know her own strength."

They walked into Cuddy's, and Molly was almost bouncing up and down from excitement to hear how everything went. Kate looked up at the two of them and grinned.

"Well, well, the dynamic duo makes a surprise appearance," she laughed. "You two on a date to celebrate your success?"

Wallace turned red and Kip turned blue, and they both looked down.

"I just figured I owed Kip lunch after how much he helped me," Wallace said as he slid into a booth across from Kip. Molly couldn't contain herself anymore.

"How did it go? Tell me everything!" she cried.

Wallace and Kip took turns telling her how it had gone as they worked their way through lunch.

"Glad to see you're finally branching out, Kip," Kate said as she picked up their plates. "It'll be good for you, you'll see."

"Yeah, yeah," Kip waved his hand. "Well, Wallace, I'm free this afternoon if you want to make another house call."

"I would appreciate that," Wallace admitted. He grinned at Kip. Kip grinned reluctantly back. This could be the start of a beautiful working friendship.


	2. Chapter 2

*several weeks later*

Kip had been going with Wallace on his house calls for a few weeks. They were going much better than when Wallace was alone. First they had gotten Charlie to start going to therapy, and then they got Sal into Alcoholics Anonymous. Mona was the next to open her door, and by that time word had started to spread that Wallace had Kip's seal of approval. Now all his clients would answer the door, and he had reports started for all of them.

He was submitting the reports to his boss, and the home office had gotten off his back. Now the only person from District A that Wallace talked to on a regular basis was Jerry. Wallace supposed that he should be happy, but something was bugging him. Mostly it started with Charlie. Charlie had been experimented on by the government, and for now, it looked like there was nothing Wallace could do about it. Some of his other clients were bothering him, too. Sure, on the surface he was helping them, but he felt like he was missing something deeper. There was something else underneath the obvious that was very wrong, but Wallace couldn't figure out what it was.

Kip came over after going on a house call with Wallace. He didn't always have to go now that Wallace had his foot in the door, but sometimes he went along anyway, just to make sure people still remembered that he was one the same side as Wallace. Kip noticed that something seemed to be bothering Wallace lately, especially now when he asked Kip to come over while he wrote the reports. Kip couldn't shake the feeling that Wallace was looking for something, but he couldn't think what.

Kip sat on Wallace's couch, sipping a cup of tea, while Wallace wrote up his reports from the house calls today. Wallace had asked Kip to come over to make sure he didn't forget any details, but so far Wallace had been writing in silence. Kip wasn't uncomfortable with the silence, but he wished he had something to do. He wished he had his laptop so he could work on his blog.

"Augh!" Wallace burst out, slamming his hand on his desk, making Kip jump. "God, this is frustrating! I wish monsters had the same rights as humans!"

Kip froze. "You do?"

"Yeah, it would make all these reports easier. I have to jump through all these extra hoops just because the government treats monsters and humans differently."

Wallace looked up to see Kip staring at him.

"Yeah, I'll admit monsters kind of scared me when I had never met one," he said, smiling sheepishly. "But now that I know you, and Roy and Molly, you guys aren't scary. Sure, you're different, but you're still just people. Now that I know you guys, I can't think of a reason you shouldn't have the same rights as humans."

Kip opened and closed his mouth a few times, trying to get words out.

"You really think that?" he asked.

"I do," Wallace replied, one side of his mouth quirked up into a half smile. It was a sweet look, Kip noticed randomly.

"Do you want to come to a protest with me tomorrow?" Kip asked.

"I mean, I'd love to, but do people really want a human there?" Wallace answered with a question.

"Are you kidding me, we love it when we can get humans to come," Kip told him. "It makes a much bigger impact when humans say they want monsters to have the same rights as humans."

"Then yes, I would love to come to a protest with you," Wallace said, then thought of something. "As long as it doesn't get violent. I'm not really good at violence."

Kip shook his head. Wallace really was a sweet guy. Kind of a baby, too. Kip definitely didn't have a hard time believing that Wallace wasn't a fighter.

"Don't worry, Roy can't come, so we'll be short one riot starting nightmare," Kip assured him.

The next day, Wallace walked beside Kip, holding a homemade sign that said "Monsters are people too".

"And all I do is stand here and hold this?" he asked Kip nervously. This was his first protest, after all.

"Yeah, I won't make you try yelling anything on your first time out. Besides, we're trying to do this as peacefully as possible, so yelling isn't exactly what we're going for here," Kip replied. "Oh no…"

Roy came running up to them, Molly in tow.

"Guess who got out early today?" Roy said cheerfully, spreading his arms. "In case you couldn't guess, it's everyone's best friend Roy G. Biv. Yes sir, now there's really going to be a protest. Not much energy flying around, Kip, but I can change that, because, I mean, who could resist my pull? Hi there!" he called, waving at a couple of monsters that were a few feet away. They waved back, seeming excited to see Roy, and he continued with his tirade. "And Kate said she would come by later to try and take pictures and you could totally put them on your blog, Kip, because we really need to get the word out that we monsters aren't going to stand for this treatment anymore, and…"

"ROY!" Kip yelled, loud enough to scare the nearest group of people. Roy stopped in midsentence, looking at Kip.

"What?"

"In case you haven't noticed, Wallace is here," Kip said angrily, gesturing at Wallace. Wallace waved shyly from behind his poster at Molly and Roy, who noticed him for the first time.

"Hey, Wally," Roy said before turning back to Kip. "So?"

"So if we want to get humans on our side, we need to not scare off the ones that are actually willing to protest with us," Kip told him. "Besides, violence won't get us anywhere. We have to protest peacefully, to show the humans that they have nothing to be afraid of."

"Oh fine then," Roy huffed. "What do you want me to do?"

"Go home and take Molly with you," Kip muttered under his breath, so softly that only Wallace heard him. "Just, hold a sign, will you?" He thrust a sign at Roy that read "We deserve rights". "Go start a song, why don't you, you're good at that."

"Good idea, Kipster," Roy said happily, walking away singing something about "we shall overcome". Some of the nearest monsters joined in.

"Don't call me that!" Kip yelled after him, then sighed in defeat. "You might want to leave now, Wallace. You can never tell what's going to happen when he shows up."

"He's just excited, Kip, don't rain on his parade so much," Molly admonished him. Kip adjusted his glasses.

"It's not that I don't like his enthusiasm, and if I thought that could help us, I wouldn't say another word to him. But in the past, violent protests never worked. We've heard about them and we've seen them, they always make things worse. The only way to really change our situation is to convince humans that we're not a threat to them, that we deserve the same rights as them."

"I'm staying," Wallace broke in quietly. Kip whipped his head around.

"Wallace, you don't have to. Besides, won't it look bad at your job if you get caught up in a violent protest?" Kip asked.

"I mean, it might if the news actually got back to the office, but since I'm the only social worker out here right now, my reports are pretty much the only way they know what I'm up to. Unless we make some seriously national news, they'll never know I was here. Besides, I'm not sure they care too much what I do in my free time." Kip opened his mouth to argue, but Wallace went on. "If it starts to get out of hand, I'll leave. I don't want to be in the middle of that any more than you do. But if my being here really does help, then I want to help for as long as I can. There's something going on here that I don't like, and I don't know what it is, but maybe it starts with the inequality."

"Is that what you've been looking for?" Kip asked, thinking about how Wallace seemed so preoccupied. Molly started to wander toward Roy, probably to help keep him check.

"There's something I'm not seeing," Wallace admitted. "Everyone keeps telling me to look below the surface, and I'm trying. At least now I know that I'm missing something, something important."

"I'm not sure exactly what you think you're looking for, Wally, but if it means that you'll keep helping us protest, I hope you keep trying to find it," Kip said. He was so preoccupied with the fact that Wallace might be circling around something dangerous that he didn't even realize what he'd said.

"Since when do you call me Wally?" Wallace asked. Kip wanted to slap himself, and he felt a blush rise in his cheeks.

"Since never. Forget I said anything."

"Hey," Wallace caught his arm as he turned to walk away. Kip turned reluctantly back. "It's fine. You can call me that if you want to, you just surprised me."

"It's fine," Kip said, resolving to never call Wallace "Wally" again.

Thankfully, the protest stayed peaceful. Molly must have been keeping a good eye on Roy. The four friends walked back to their apartment building together. Kip looked at Wallace nervously out of the corner of his eye. Wallace was digging into something dangerous, even if he didn't know it yet. He was smart enough that he would find his answer eventually. Could such a sweet guy really handle what he would find? Kip had to keep an eye on him, and prepare to handle the fallout that had to be coming.


	3. Chapter 3

"Hello?" Wallace answered his cell phone, walking away from the table where he'd been eating with Kip, Molly, and Roy. Kate shot him a curious look from across the diner, and he waved at her.

"Mr. Foster, I haven't heard from you in quite some time," a smooth voice answered. Wallace froze, and quickly walked out of the diner. Whatever Mr. Crimmins wanted, it couldn't be good.

"I've been submitting my reports, sir," Wallace said, willing his voice not to quiver.

"Yes, I've read them," Mr. Crimmins almost sneered. "Forgive me, but they're a bit…dry."

"Dry?" Wallace asked. This was not going in a good direction.

"Well, I see that you've managed to talk to your clients, and have prepared plans for all of them based on their needs, but this isn't quite up to your past work," Crimmins told him. "Reading your past reports, you always include more about your clients. Thoughts on their behavior, their habits, your opinion on their problems versus what they actually tell you. These…you've just been recording events and plans. Hardly anything in depth. One must wonder if you've met with these clients at all."

"Of course I've met with them," Wallace responded hotly. Actually, he had been reserving some of the thoughts and feelings he usually put into reports. Most of the feelings had to do with the bad feeling Wallace had, and he didn't want to say anything until he was sure. "I resent that you'd imply I was lying about my job. I'm still getting to know them, a lot of them, so I haven't been able to find that deep connection with any of them yet. That will take time, you know."

"Yes, yes, of course," Crimmins sighed, sounding bored. "Might I ask if you've received any help from Kipland Kaizer?"

Wallace looked into the diner where Kip was laughing, probably at something Molly had said. Surely it couldn't hurt Kip to just say that they'd been working together?

"Yes, he came with me on a few house calls, to let people know that I was on their side," Wallace admitted. "Why do you ask?"

"Oh, I'm always interested to hear how young Kipland is doing," Crimmins replied.

"Why is that?" Wallace asked. There was something about Crimmins' tone that he didn't like. What exactly did this man want with Kip?

"I don't believe that's any of your business, now is it, Mr. Foster?" Crimmins laughed cruelly. "Just continue to update your reports, and see if you can't put any more effort into them, hm?"

"Yes, sir," Wallace said as he heard the line disconnect. He stared at his phone for a moment, seriously considering throwing it to the ground. His hands were shaking with some combination of anger and anxiety. That was the most unnerving conversation he'd had in a long time.

Wallace slid back into the booth beside Kip.

"What was that?" Molly asked, turning away from the story Roy was telling.

"Nothing important," Wallace lied, waving his hand to try to pass it off. "Just someone from work."

Molly turned back to Roy without any suspicions, but unfortunately, Kip had been working with him long enough to tell when he was lying.

"What was it really?" Kip asked, low enough that Molly and Roy didn't notice.

"My boss. I'll tell you later, if you want," Wallace answered. He had planned on telling Kip about it anyway.

"You'd better," Kip said.

When the quartet made it back to the apartment building, Molly and Roy drifted off to check on Ben. Kip followed Wallace to his apartment.

"What happened?" Kip asked as soon as the door swung closed. Wallace ran his hand through his hair before turning to face Kip.

"My boss. He called to say that my reports weren't up to my usual standards. Dry is the word he used," Wallace said with a nervous laugh. "He asked if I was actually seeing my clients, I guess if I was just making stuff up. And then…Kip, he asked about you."

"Me?" Kip looked startled. "Why would your boss ask about me?"

"I don't know. He didn't answer when I asked," Wallace told him. "Kip, do you know a man named Crimmins?"

"I've never heard the name," Kip admitted, looking at his hands. They were shaking.

"The weird thing is, I never told him I was working with you before, never even put it in my reports," Wallace went on. Kip was starting to worry him. "He actually told me to ask you for help when I was having trouble at the beginning."

"He knew about me then?" Kip asked. "Why didn't you say anything?"

"I didn't think it was important," Wallace replied. "I mean, you're a blogger, it wasn't too unreasonable to think he had seen that."

Kip was starting to look legitimately scared. What Wallace did next, he did on instinct the same instinct that had made him want to be a social worker in the first place. He wrapped his arms around Kip.

Kip stiffened for a minute before he relaxed into the hug.

"Kip, I don't know what's going on or what it has to do with you, but I'll get to the bottom of it," Wallace said fiercely. "It's deeper than the inequality and injustice, and it's definitely wrong. And I'm going to find out what it is, and I'm going to put a stop to it."

"Some things you can't change, Wally," Kip said, his head tucked against Wallace's shoulder. "Stick to the things you can."

"Do you know something about all this?" Wallace asked.

"Not really any more than you do," Kip answered. "You can let go now."

"Right! Sorry," Wallace released his arms hastily. "I can't really help it sometimes, you know? Social worker thing, I guess."

"Yeah, I know," Kip told him. He didn't look so scared and confused anymore. "Just out of curiosity, have your reports been substandard?"

"Yeah, I guess they have," Wallace admitted. "Usually I put in a lot more detail about my clients, that's what Crimmins was asking for. I wasn't putting it in because I wasn't sure I was right about some stuff, but now that I know he's looking for something, I definitely have to keep that stuff out. Something's not right here, and until I know what it is, I have to protect people here."

"You could write stuff like you used to, but…not what he's looking for," Kip suggested.

"I can't lie, Kip," Wallace sighed. "Besides being a good way to get fired, I couldn't bring myself to do it. The guilt would get me."

"Then maybe you could add your observations, the ones that you think are safe," Kip revised. "You don't put the stuff you're not sure about or the stuff you think could hurt somebody, and see if that helps."

"I'd have to be careful," Wallace said, thinking. "I've worked too hard trying to build trust here to let that go away, and if anyone got hurt because of me…"

"You think it's that bad?" Kip asked.

"I don't know, Kip, but until I do, I won't put anyone at risk."

"Be careful, Wally," Kip advised. "Don't get hurt yourself, trying to protect someone."

Wallace looked up at that, but he didn't say anything.

"I should go," Kip said, hand on the doorknob as he looked over his shoulder. "And Wallace? I meant it about being careful. There's not a lot of people out there who want to help as much as you do. Don't make us lose the one we've got."

Wallace had no reply for that as Kip left. He stood in the middle of his apartment, looking around. Only a few weeks ago, this place had felt hostile, and he had felt alone, and now Molly, Roy, and Kip were starting to feel a little like family. He shook himself out of his stupor and pulled out his cell phone.

"What's going on?" a sleep-filled voice answered.

"Jerry, sorry, I know it's late, but this is important," Wallace said. "I need you to do something for me."


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I usually pride myself on keeping fanfics canonically accurate…but I can't wait for an update to write more! So I'm going off canon, while trying to be as true to the characters as possible.

"Wallace?" Jerry asked, yawning. "Man, it's two in the morning. What are you doing calling at this hour?"

"You know I wouldn't if it wasn't important," Wallace replied. "I need your help with something."

"What?"

"I need you to…look into the paperwork and see if there's any connection between Mr. Crimmins and Kipland Kaizer," Wallace said.

"That could get me in a lot of trouble, man," Jerry complained. "You call me at two in the morning for that?"

"Jerry, it's important," Wallace protested. "Please. There's something going on here, and Crimmins knows something. He's been asking a lot of questions about a friend of mine here, and…"

"Hold on. Back up," Jerry interrupted. "Did you say you had a friend there? A monster?"

"Yeah, I do," Wallace shot back. "Several, actually."

"And I'm guessing one of them is this Kipland Kaizer?"

"Yes."

"How can you be friends with monsters?"

"They're really nice once you get to know them," Wallace replied hotly. "They're not so different from us. Getting to know these guys, I don't understand why humans are so scared of them!"

"Okay, okay, man!" Jerry protested. "It's too early to get this worked up. Look, if it's that important to you, I'll take a look in the paperwork and see what I can find about Mr. Crimmins."

"Thank you. I know I'm asking a lot," Wallace sighed.

"Yeah, you owe me big time," Jerry agreed. "Oh!"

"What?!"

"I just remembered," Jerry said, sounding excited despite how sleepy he had to be. "A few weeks ago Mr. Crimmins asked me to get some really old files. I had to jump through, like, all the hoops to get them."

"What were they about?" Wallace asked. This piqued his curiosity. Could it be a clue to why he had such a bad feeling?

"You know I knew better than to look," Jerry laughed. "But if I see the files again…I'll see what I can do."

"Thanks, Jerry," Wallace said.

He hung up and slid down the wall. What was Crimmins doing in those old files? What did he want with Kip? Wallace had way more questions than answers.

A few weeks later, he was walking home from a meeting with one of his clients when his phone went off. When he saw that it was Jerry, he couldn't answer his phone fast enough.

"Did you find anything out?" he asked.

"Hello to you too, Wallace," Jerry sighed.

"Jerry!"

"Okay, okay. Jeez," Wallace could imagine Jerry shaking his head. "Okay, so get this. Mr. Crimmins hasn't been in social work for very long. Actually, I can't tell you exactly where he came from. There's not a record of it here, but there's some symbols on his file…Wallace, I'm pretty sure he came from somewhere in the government. What else could keep so much a secret?"

"The government? Do you have any idea what part?" Wallace asked.

"No, man, I just told you that's just a hunch," Jerry huffed. "But whatever it is, it's something they don't want people knowing about."

"What about those old files Crimmins wanted?" Wallace remembered. "Did you ever find out what those were about?"

"Sort of. I looked at them, if that's what you're asking," Jerry replied. "Not that I could figure out even half of what they were saying. There was so much blacked out and so many code names…what the hell have you gotten yourself into?"

"What can you tell me about those files?" Wallace avoided the question.

"They're old," Jerry told him. "Really old. From back when they were dividing the city into districts and separating monsters from humans. From what I can tell, at least some of it's a plan for the segregation, specifically about District E."

"Huh," Wallace hummed. "Wonder what Crimmins wanted with those? Wish I could see them."

"Check your mail," Jerry said in a small voice. "I made copies and sent them to you."

"Jerry!" Wallace gasped. "I'd have never thought you would do something so risky."

"I can hardly believe it myself," Jerry laughed nervously. "Something about those files freaked me out. Something is going on, but I think you already knew that."

"This goes all the way up in the government," Wallace muttered. "I was afraid of that."

"Yeah, and now that I think about it, the government goes out of their way to keep humans and monsters from interacting," Jerry mused. "It's not just separating the districts either. They pound it into our heads how dangerous monsters are, and you said that the monsters didn't trust you at first. I mean, you and I were terrified of monsters when we'd never even met one, and you say they're not really that different from us. It's like they don't want us talking at all."

"Yeah, you're right," Wallace realized. "Jerry, what's going on here?"

"I don't know, but…" Jerry cut off. A voice in the background said, "And is this a personal call on company time?"

"Damn it, Wallace, I've got to go," Jerry hissed. "I'll call you when I can."

The call cut off. Wallace looked at the phone in his hand for a minute, then slid it into his pocket. He had to check his mail. If those photocopies were here, maybe he could figure something out.

Sure enough, there was a large envelope, addressed to him in Jerry's spidery handwriting. Wallace looked furtively over his shoulder before slipping it into his bag, racing to his apartment. He ripped open the envelope and slipped the photocopies out.

Wow. Jerry was right. So much of these were blacked out, he was going to have a hard time figuring anything out. But they weren't nicely typed up like he had thought. Instead, they looked like someone's handwritten notes.

"Surely they had typewriters back then…" Wallace thought. Then he saw something that made his blood run cold.

He took off sprinting to Kip and Roy's apartment. He started banging on the door with a growing sense of panic. Roy opened the door.

"What's up, Wally?" he asked with a grin.

"Roy! Where's Kip? I need to talk to him," Wallace said, trying to keep his voice calm. Whatever this was, he didn't want to freak Roy out until he knew what was going on.

"He's in his room," Roy gestured with a jerk of his head. "But I wouldn't go in there, Wally, because Kip's working on his blog, and he doesn't like to be bothered while he's doing that, and…"

But Wallace never heard the rest of Roy's tirade, because he was already moving toward Kip's room. He knocked, trying to be gentle despite his emotions.

"Roy? I told you I'm busy…" a voice started from within.

"It's me," Wallace told him, pushing in the door.

"Wally? What are you doing here?" Kip asked, looking up from his laptop.

"A friend of mine sent me these and…there's something you need to see," Wallace let out a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding.

"What are they?" Kip took the copies Wallace was holding out.

"They're copies of some really old files," Wallace answered. Kip started reading through them, and when he gasped and froze, Wallace knew he had gotten to the part that had scared him enough to send him running over here.

"The Kaizers will never agree," was written in a fine, almost feminine hand. Under it, in blocky letters that almost certainly belonged to a large, muscle bound man,

"Then destroy them."


	5. Chapter 5

Kip looked up at Wallace, hands shaking. Wallace knew his eyes were frozen as wide as Kip's.

"What do they mean, the Kaizers will never agree?" Kip asked in a whisper.

"I just got these and I came over as soon as I saw that," Wallace answered, just as softly. "This is old stuff, Kip. Separation of the districts old."

"How did you even get a hold of this?"

"A friend back in District A," Wallace told him. "He's still in the office I was in. He had access to the old files. I really hate to ask this, but how much do you know about your family history?"

"What?" Kip's voice rose. "You think my family has something to do with this?"

"What do you expect me to think?" Wallace shot back. "I have my creepy, mysterious boss asking about you by name, I have other people sending me to you to ask for help, and now I find your last name on files that I can barely read and still scare me."

"Shh. If you yell Roy will come in here," Kip hushed him with one hand while closing his laptop with the other. Wallace sat down cross-legged in front of Kip, knees touching.

"Tell me what's going on," Wallace demanded, softly but calmly. "All I know is that ever since I started talking to people here, nothing has seemed right, and it feels like everyone is lying to me. Even you."

"I'm not trying to," Kip sighed. "Okay, Wally, I'm going to tell you what I know. I don't know as much as you think I do, but you're right, I have been keeping secrets.

"We can start with my family history. I don't know much, because any book or record from before and around the separation of the districts was destroyed. I do have some urban legends and family stories. From what I can tell, my family used to be a bit of a ruling clan. Pretty much all of monsterkind followed them. Our last name, Kaizer, is a play off an old word for ruler. So if they decided to resist humans, the rest of the monsters would have followed their lead."

"And it looks like that's exactly what happened," Wallace interjected.

"Yeah. That might be one reason your boss knew my name," Kip agreed. "My older brother Kent was a lot like me, protesting against the segregation, but he was a lot more active. I'm better at just being a blogger, but he was out on the streets, talking to people and uniting them. He was dating a woman, wanted to help, just like you do. She was a human."

"Is she the friend Ben was talking about…?" Wallace wondered.

"I used to go around with the two of them, talking to people, which is why a lot of people know me, and maybe think a lot of me. They see me and think "That's Kent's little brother, he'll help us just like Kent did" or something. Then one day, the two of them just…disappeared. I was about seventeen at the time, and I gave them about a week before I started looking for them. I called everyone I knew, trying to pinpoint the exact time they disappeared. And then I found something."

"What?" Wallace knew he was being a bad audience but he couldn't help himself, caught up in Kip's story.

"I found where they were taken to," Kip replied in a haunted voice. "By the time I got there, Kent was already dead, and his girlfriend…they finished her off when I got there. I tried to run, but they caught me. I told you I have ice powers? I tried to use them to get away, but I was just a kid. I can't even control them now. So they captured me, and started doing the same thing to me as they'd done to Kent."

Kip paused and pulled up the ends of the long sleeves he always wore. Wallace gasped at the scars on his wrists, obvious signs of a struggle against handcuffs. Almost unconsciously, he reached out to touch the scars gently. Kip smiled bitterly.

"Eventually they left me, probably to relax before starting in on me again. I was terrified; I knew I was going to die, just like my brother. And somehow…my powers worked, a little bit. Enough to break the cuffs. I took off, but I had to sneak out past them. I heard them talking, and Wally, they were definitely from the government. I got out, and ever since, I've been too scared to do anything more than blog. I want to help like Kent did, but…every time I do I remember how it felt to know I was going to die, and I just can't. That's probably the real reason your boss knew my name."

Wallace's hands, which had been on Kip's scars, had slid down to rest on Kip's hands. Kip didn't seem to notice, because Wallace was sure that if he had, he would have pulled his hands away.

"That's pretty much all I've been keeping from you," Kip went on. "I don't really know who took me and my brother and his girlfriend, and I don't know why. I'm pretty sure it's some government sanctioned stuff, but I don't know who sanctioned it or what they're trying to do. I don't know why we're segregated, but it seems like someone's willing to go pretty far to keep it that way. And I don't know exactly why you have such a bad feeling, but I have it too, and we both know something isn't right, but I don't know what it is any more than you do."

Wallace let go of one of Kip's hands and swung around so that they were both leaning against the wall, shoulder to shoulder. He sighed.

"So what do we do now?" Wallace asked.

"What can we do?" Kip shot back, probably harsher than he meant, because Wallace could hear the note of futility in his voice. "This goes all the way up into the government, Wally. How do we fight that?"

"Humans are scared of you guys, but there's no reason to be," Wallace mused, more to himself than to Kip. Their hands still rested together between them, all but forgotten. "I mean, I was scared of monsters, but after I spent a couple weeks here, I wasn't scared anymore. I'm pretty sure if most humans met you, they wouldn't be so scared anymore. We can keep going with your peaceful protests, but we can try to introduce you guys to more humans. Maybe we can change people's opinions that way. Even the government can't stand against the entire population, right?

"I do have one more question, though," Wallace continued before Kip could answer. "What's in District E?"

"I don't know," Kip admitted. "I've never been."

"If you've got a couple of days free this weekend, I think it might be worth a trip," Wallace said, trying to indicate with his voice that he did want Kip to come. Kip squeezed the hand he was holding, startling Wallace with the realization that Kip had noticed their hands the whole time.

"I just happen to have the weekend off," Kip replied. "To District E?"

"To District E."


	6. Chapter 6

"What exactly do you think we're looking for?" Wallace asked as he and Kip stepped on the train to District E.

"Could be almost anything, I guess," Kip acknowledged. "I really don't know. We have so little to go on. I guess we could look around for anything owned by the government. That might be a good place to start."

"Shh," Wallace hushed, turning his back to the aisle as a set of policemen walked by them. Kip nodded and turned to stare out the window.

They passed the ride mostly in silence, with small bursts of conversation here and there. Over the few months they had been working together, they had become closer as friends, but lately, their friendship seemed a little awkward. Wallace couldn't figure out why. Sometimes they would break off a conversation and the atmosphere would feel tense for no reason. Wallace had put it down to Kip keeping secrets, but he feeling hadn't gone away since Kip had told Wallace what he knew.

"We're here," Kip broke Wallace's string of thoughts by nudging him in the side. Wallace stood up to get off the train.

The first thing they both noticed was that District E looked horrible. Even the seediest parts of District C looked better than the area around the train station.

"Maybe there are better parts farther in?" Wallace suggested, but even he could hear the question in his statement, and he knew Kip didn't believe him.

"This is terrible," Kip muttered. "I knew E was bad, but I didn't know it was this bad. On the other hand, if the government is hiding something, this would be the place to do it. No one would think to look here."

Wallace and Kip walked down what seemed to be the main road through the city. They passed beat up store fronts and struggling businesses. Wallace noticed that he was attracting some stares, probably because he was the only human around. Even in District C, humans mixed with monsters, at least a little bit. Wallace had almost never been in a situation where he was the only human. Only in his apartment building, and even then, he hadn't felt the hostility he was feeling now. He drifted a little closer to Kip.

"Notice that guy?" Kip asked Wallace. Wallace turned. He could see a person walking furtively down the street. Dressed in a trench coat and hat, it wasn't clear whether the person was male or female, but it was obvious that they were trying not to be noticed. The person passed them on the street, and from the quick glimpse Wallace caught of the person's features, he could tell it was a human male.

"Follow him?" Wallace suggested. Kip nodded. They followed the man down the street, trying to move at a leisurely pace as if they were just looking around without losing sight of him. As they followed the man deeper into District E, the buildings around them grew shabbier and more dilapidated. The man ducked into one of them. Wallace and Kip reached it a few minutes later.

"What do you think?" Wallace asked.

"Well…" Kip began. "Technically, there isn't a 'No Trespassing' or 'Keep Out' sign. There's no legal reason we shouldn't go in there."

"That's not what I'm asking and you know it," Wallace retorted. "Kip, if these are the same people who took your brother and you, we don't want to just wander in there."

"We came all the way here," Kip countered. "Seems a little useless to head back as soon as we find a clue to what we're looking for, doesn't it?"

"I guess you're right," Wallace admitted. "Still, let's start by checking a window, okay?"

The first few windows they checked were blacked out, but they eventually found a broken one. Peering in, they couldn't believe their eyes.

They never would have guessed, based off the outside of the building, that the inside would be the kind of immaculate white that sent shivers down Wallace's spine.

"Does this look like…?" Kip started.

"A lab?" Wallace finished. "That's what I was thinking. What's this doing way out here?"

"Who knows, but we definitely need to go in now," Kip said.

"You're kidding."

"No, I'm not," Kip sighed. "Look, we have no idea what's going on in there. For all we can tell from here, they could be doing cancer research or something just as innocent. We need to see what they're up to, and we need to have proof."

Kip held up a small camera. Wallace shook his head and muttered something about the likelihood of a cancer research lab in the middle of District E under his breath.

"We can probably get in this window," Kip went on. "Look, the latch is broken, we could open it and slide right in."

"If we get caught…" Wallace warned.

"We won't," Kip cut him off. "At least, we won't get caught if we don't spend all day standing here arguing about it. Somebody's going to come along sooner or later."

"Fine," Wallace huffed. He slid the window open. "Hurry up and get in here, then."

Kip followed him. He snapped a quick picture of the hallway.

"I don't think anyone cares about the hall, Kip," Wallace whispered under his breath.

"You never know what's going to be important," Kip countered. "Roll with it, Wally."

Wallace rolled his eyes as they continued down the hallway. They eventually came to a door marked "Pain Tolerance Experiments".

"I hate how that sounds," Wallace moaned in a whisper. There was a window in the door, and Kip and Wallace crept up to it. A face suddenly appeared in it, making them both jump back, Wallace choking down a squeak. It was the face of a monster, cut to ribbons, one eye missing.

"Just like Charlie," Wallace thought.

"Help me," the monster moaned. Wallace sighed and felt tears rise to his eyes. Kip snapped a quick picture while Wallace tried to pull the door open. It was locked.

"I'm sorry," Wallace breathed. "We'll send help back for you."

"Don't leave!" the monster called after them, but they were already gone. Wallace could feel his hands shaking.

"Enough proof yet, Kip?" Wallace asked. He really wanted to get out of there.

"Just a little longer, Wally," Kip replied. "The more we get, the better."

Ahead of them was a door marked "Endurance Experiments".

"That can't be worse than pain tolerance, right?" Wallace asked as they crept up to the door. They peered into it. This time, a human was in the room along with a monster. The monster was on a treadmill, clearly at the point of exhaustion, with all sorts of electrodes coming from her body.

"Come now, surely you can do better than that?" the human mocked the monster as he pressed a button. She shrieked and almost jerked off the treadmill, as if electrocuted. She kept running, tears streaming down her face. Kip snapped a picture. The problem was that Kip had forgotten to take the flash off. The human whipped his head around.

"Run!" Wallace whisper-shouted, grabbing Kip's wrist and sprinting for the window they had come in. An alarm began to blare and red lights began to flash over them. Guards appeared at the end of the hallway, but Kip and Wallace were already sliding out. They started sprinting down the street, but guards were chasing after them. Kip pulled Wallace into an alley. They turned down another and were soon lost in a maze. They could still hear the sounds of pursuit, but growing fainter as they sprinted into the alleys.

Suddenly, they must have made a wrong turn, because they could hear shouting and boots pounding around the corner.

"Put your hood up," Kip shouted under his breath. They were both wearing hoodies.

"What?"

"Just do it," Kip whispered angrily. Wallace did as Kip said so that they had both covered their heads. Kip pushed Wallace up against the side of the building and pressed their lips together just as the guards came rushing around the corner.

"Ugh, get a room," one of the guards groaned as they turned away. Wallace's hands were on Kip's waist, probably out of some instinct, but he was frozen, his eyes wide. Kip's eyes were determinedly shut. As soon as they couldn't hear the guards, Kip stepped back.

Wallace could feel himself blushing. Once Kip saw his face, he turned a furious shade of blue. Wallace had always thought of blue as a calm color, but the blue of Kip's face was anything but calm.

"Come on," Kip turned, the tips of his ears still dark blue. "Let's get to the train before we get into any more trouble."

"I'm sorry, are we going to ignore what just happened?" Wallace asked, his voice a little higher than normal.

"I'd prefer it if you would," Kip muttered, so low that Wallace barely caught it.

"Kip!"

"Wally, keep your voice down until we get on the train," Kip hissed.

Their walk to the train was silent and tense. The minute they sat down, Wallace forced Kip to look at him. Kip's face was set. He was clearly prepared for what Wallace was about to say. So Wallace said the opposite.

"You are never planning adventures again," he said fiercely. Kip looked so surprised at this response that Wallace started to laugh, and then Kip started to laugh, and soon enough they were both laughing until their sides hurt, knowing that they were drawing stares from other passengers, but not caring in the slightest.


	7. Chapter 7

A few days passed, and neither Wallace nor Kip mentioned the kiss to each other. It wasn't forgotten, though. Wallace had taken to thinking of it with capital letters in his head: The Kiss. He had been obsessing over it, just a little. It had taken him by surprise, and he was confuse at Kip's refusal to talk about it. He was even a little mad at Kip for springing that on him without warning, but a small part of his brain, the voice in the back, kept reminding him that he hadn't hated it.

For now, he and Kip were calm, but he could tell it was a calm before a storm. As soon as they tried to talk about it, everything would be different. So for now, Wallace was fine with not talking about it.

Molly and Roy, however, were not. They didn't know what exactly had happened between Wallace and Kip, but they did know that something was different, and they wouldn't let it drop.

"But Wally, you and Kip have been acting so weird lately, and it's really not at all like how you two used to act around each other," Roy was going on a rant, "and it's really starting to bother me, you know, because what if you two had a fight, and what if that changes our friend group dynamic? Because that would so not be okay, you know, and I would feel really sad, and you two won't even tell us what's wrong, and I…"

"ROY!" Kip shouted, cutting Roy off. He continued to yell at Roy as Molly sidled closer to Wallace, whose cheeks were faintly pink. Wallace had come over to talk to Kip about work stuff, especially since, thanks to Kip's help, Wallace felt like he was really starting to make a difference with his clients.

"What's really going on?" Molly asked quietly, much too quietly for either Kip or Roy to hear, even if either of them had been paying attention.

"Nothing much," Wallace answered, just as quietly.

"You and I both know that's not exactly true, Wally," Molly admonished, draping one giant hand on Wallace's shoulder. "You and Kip have been acting strange ever since you got back from District E. Did you find something?"

"Of course we did, we told you about that lab we found," Wallace answered evasively. "It was really creepy."

"Still, that's no reason for you and Kip to be treating each other any differently." Molly sighed. "Look, you know you can talk to Roy and me about anything, right? We're you're friends, too."

"Thanks, Molly," Wallace murmured. Molly was definitely the mother figure of the group, despite being the youngest. However, Wallace didn't need to talk to Molly. He needed to talk to Kip, and putting it off wasn't going to help anything in the long run.

Wallace sighed.

"Hey, Kip?" he called, distracting Kip from yelling at Roy. "I forgot some work stuff at my apartment. Come get it with me?"

Kip nodded and followed Wallace back to his apartment. As soon as the door closed Wallace said,

"We need to talk."

At the same time Kip said,

"I owe you an apology."

"Wait, why? For what?"

"I kissed you and pretended it didn't happen."

"Well, yeah, you did," Wallace laughed nervously, rubbing his hand on the back of his head. "But I pretended it didn't happen too. You were just trying to get us out of there."

"Is that what you think of it?" Kip asked, turning darker blue and almost sounding…disappointed?

"I'm not mad at you, if that's what you've been thinking," Wallace replied. "So…we should stop being so awkward around each other. Molly and Roy are worried about us."

"You're probably right," Kip agreed. "This doesn't bother you?"

"No," Wallace shook his head. "Like I said, we had to get out of there somehow. You're my best friend. I don't want to lose that."

"I'm your best friend?"

"Who else would be?" Wallace asked. "You see me spending all my time with anyone else?"

"Good point," Kip mused. "No wonder Molly and Roy think we're dating."

"They think what?!"

"Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you," Kip said, blushing again and starting to sound nervous. "Molly and Roy think we're dating. That's why they keep giving you weird looks whenever you come over."

"I thought that was how they always were."

"Well, you're not wrong," Kip admitted. "They keep teasing me about it. Maybe that's why I've been so awkward about the whole kiss thing."

"Speaking of Molly and Roy, we should head back over there," Wallace said.

"Don't be surprised if they accuse us of making out over here," Kip replied, shaking his head.

"We could pretend we were," Wallace suggested. "I'd love to see the looks on their faces if we said we were."

"Don't even joke about that," Kip warned. "Molly would get a nosebleed and Roy would probably drop body parts."

"Drop…body parts?"  
"Yeah, he comes unraveled and his eyes come off," Kip said casually. "Sometimes if he's really surprised, it just kind of happens."

"That is…strange," Wallace said.

"Monsters are strange," Kip shrugged.

"Fair point."

"Still, don't tease them too much," Kip got serious. "Even if we're joking about it, they'd take it seriously."

"So what?"

"You want to be teased every time you see them for the rest of time?"

"Okay, fine."

The two walked back to the shared apartment. The minute they walked in, Molly called from the couch,

"Here comes the power couple!"

At the same time, Roy got right up in Kip's face.

"Roy…?" Kip said, both a question and a warning.

"No difference, Molly," Roy called. "They weren't making out!"

"Is that what you guys thought?" Wallace asked.

"Hey, you were gone for a long time," Molly shrugged. "What did you expect us to think?"

"It just took Wally a while to find what he was looking for," Kip lied smoothly.

"Why were you even there?" Roy asked. "It doesn't exactly sound like you helped, Kip."

"I was there to make snide comments about Wally's lack of organization."

"Says the guy with the practically unfurnished apartment," Wallace shot back.

Roy, Molly, and Kip all stared at him for a minute. Then they all burst out laughing.

"He's right, you know," Molly wiped tears from her eyes.

Wallace couldn't help laughing along with his friends.


	8. Chapter 8

In the spirit of their newly resolved friendship, Molly had suggested that they all go see a movie together, since, as she put it, "We never go out except to protest rallies." Roy, Wallace, and Kip had all agreed that going to see a movie together sounded like a good idea. They even made plans to get dinner at Cuddy's after. Molly promised to plan the movie for all of them, with some help from Roy, because "you and Wally are always so busy, Kip."

However, Wallace's appointment with a client right before the movie was supposed to start ran over, and he ended up sprinting to the theater, hoping he could at least make it before the previews ended. He rounded a corner and saw Kip ahead of him, also sprinting. Being taller, Wallace caught up with Kip.

"What's your excuse for running late?" Wallace panted as they slid into the line for tickets.

"Lost track of time," Kip huffed, out of breath. "You?"

"Appointment ran late," Wallace answered, already getting his breathing under control. He didn't look it, but he was in pretty good shape, partially because his job was mostly walking around to clients' houses at this point.

"Molly and Roy are probably already here," Kip said. "I hope we can find them."

"Do you think we should get snacks or anything?" Wallace asked. "I don't know if we have time, though."

"I'm smuggling in soda," Kip replied, showing Wallace the bottle he had concealed in his bag. "If those two want popcorn, they would've already gotten it. I might throw up if I eat anything now."

"How far did you run?" Wallace laughed, half joking.

"From the apartment."

"Well, you got your exercise for the day in," Wallace joked.

"Hey!" Kip snapped playfully. "I'm a blogger for a reason, Wally."

They finally got their tickets and made their way into the theater. Luckily, the previews were still showing. Wallace was looking around for Molly and Roy when he heard Kip's phone go off. Kip bent his head to check the text message. Wallace whipped his head around when Kip made an angry sound at the back of his throat.

"What?" Wallace asked quietly. Kip mutely held up his phone so Wallace could see the text from Molly.

"Something came up, so Roy and I can't make it! You two enjoy the movie, and we might meet you for dinner at Cuddy's after!"

"They did this on purpose," Kip growled.

"Wait…you're saying they set us up on a date?" Wallace asked.

"Yeah, they did," Kip replied, although he didn't seem quite so angry.

"That's sneaky," Wallace mused. He wasn't upset, more amused at how far Molly and Roy seemed willing to go.

"We could just leave," Kip suggested.

"We could," Wallace agreed. "But we already bought the tickets, and it doesn't have to be a date. Friends go to the movies together all the time."

Kip nodded his agreement, and they looked around for a place to sit. The theater was almost full, and the only two seats left next to each other were in a top corner. The pair sat down just as the movie started. A few minutes in, Wallace noticed that, although on the surface the movie seemed sunny and bright, there was something sinister underneath.

"What kind of movie did Molly say this was again?" he asked Kip under his breath, not wanting to risk a shushing.

"I think horror," Kip answered, just as quietly. "She likes those, so I didn't think much of it."

Oh no.

Wallace hated horror movies. With a passion. No that he was inherently a scared person, but horror movies always managed to push just the right buttons to terrify him. He supposed he should have seen it coming from the movie's title. Last House on the Left sounded sinister, now that he thought about it.

For some reason, though, he didn't want to look scared right now. If all the others had known it was a horror movie, and were fine with it, that meant the rest of his friend group wasn't afraid of horror movies. He was the oldest one out of the four of them, and he didn't want to look like the biggest baby.

So he decided to tough it out. He focused all his energy on not screaming after every jump scare, although he couldn't stop himself from, well, jumping. About halfway through the movie, though, he was starting to lose his façade, and after one particularly terrifying jump scare, he involuntarily grabbed Kip's hand. Kip whipped around to look at him, and Wallace gave him a smile while trying to hide the fact that his fingers were starting to shake.

"Are you okay?" Kip asked, not fooled for a minute. Wallace nodded, trying to keep himself under control. However, ten minutes later, he was startled enough to grab Kip's hand again. This time, however, Kip kept holding his hand, probably by now sensing that something was indeed wrong. He wasn't an idiot, and Wallace was being pretty obvious about it.

By the end of the movie, Wallace was leaning into Kip's shoulder for support, just trying to keep his cool enough that the rest of the audience didn't notice the minor breakdown he was having. It helped that they were in the very back. As the movie ended and everyone started filing out, Kip turned to Wallace.

"Are you okay? The truth this time," Kip asked sternly. Wallace temporarily considered lying, but there was no way Kip would buy anything but the truth at this point, not after how he had acted the entire movie.

"I kind of hate horror movies," he admitted with a self-deprecating grin. "I'm not sure why they scare me so much, but they always get under my skin."

"Wally! You could have said something, we could have left!" Kip gasped.

"I thought I could make it through," Wallace smiled sheepishly. "I almost did, but then…I really didn't."

They were out of the theater at this point and on their way to Cuddy's.

"There was no reason for you to tough it out," Kip shook his head. "It's not like that was a date or anything, it's not like I was super invested in seeing the movie."

"You looked like you were enjoying it. I didn't want to ruin that for you," Wallace replied.

"I mean, that was one of the better ones I've seen lately…but that's not that point! Don't tough stuff out like that for me. It's not worth it!"

"Fine, fine," Wallace agreed, raising his hands in defeat.

"If those two are in Cuddy's I will end them," Kip growled. "And then I will laugh at them in their misery."

Molly and Roy were not, as it turned out, at Cuddy's. Wallace and Kip slid into a booth, both placing an order. They were most of the way through dinner when Wallace looked up to see Kip's eyes narrowing. Molly and Roy were both walking in, heading for the two of them.

"You two…" Kip growled, a warning in his voice. Roy stopped, a little taken aback by Kip's ferocity. Molly ignored it.

"How was your movie date?" she asked cheerfully.

"Wallace spent most of it pretending he didn't hate horror movies," Kip said accusingly.

"Did you make him stay through the whole thing?" Molly admonished.

"No. He made him stay through the whole thing," Kip snapped back.

"Why didn't you tell us you don't like horror movies?" Roy looked to Wallace.

"You kind of never asked," Wallace replied, sinking lower in his seat. The conversation turned to other topics as the four finished their dinner. They walked home, Roy and Molly a little ahead of Wallace and Kip.

"Hey. Sleep over tonight," Kip told Wallace quietly.

"What? Why?"

"I know that look you have. It's the same look Roy gets when he's going to have nightmares. I know from experience that it's a lot easier to deal with when you're not alone."

"I…thanks, I think I will."

Wallace grabbed some stuff from his apartment before heading over the Kip, Roy, and Molly's. He knocked, and was let in. Roy was grinning at him, but as soon as he opened his mouth, Kip cut in.

"Any teasing, and you can sleep alone next time you have nightmares," Kip warned.

"Maybe I'll just go sleep with Molly," Roy pouted.

"Yeah, because that's why you always come crying to me," Kip rolled his eyes. Wallace smiled nervously. "Come on, Wallace, you're bunking with me."

"I am?"

"Yes. Molly snores and Roy…is Roy."

"I choose to take that as a compliment," Roy sniffed.

"Take it how you want," Kip replied as he dragged Wallace into his room. He had already set up the small camp bed he had.

"You sure know how to do this," Wallace noted.

"Like I said, I'm usually the one Roy comes crying to," Kip shrugged. "I'm used to it."

Wallace and Kip both ended up falling asleep fairly early. As Kip had predicted, Wallace woke up in the middle of the night, covered in sweat from the nightmare. Kip had left a string of tiny lights on, and those made Wallace feel a little better. Kip opened sleep-filled eyes a slit, saw Wallace sitting up, and dropped his hand off the side of his bed, closing his eyes again. Wallace took Kip's hand, closed his eyes, and slept peacefully until the morning.


	9. Chapter 9

After the Failed Date Incident, Molly had insisted that Wallace sleep over another night to make up for it. She promised that no horror movies would make an appearance. She did, however, promise a night of fun and games.

"Wally!" Roy answered the door, smiling. "Come on in! We're going to have a great time tonight, and it'll be a blast, and we'll play games and have tons of food all night, since none of us has to work tomorrow, so we can stay up all night, and…"

"Roy, for God's sake, you're going to scare him away before he's even in the door," Kip called from the couch. He had swapped out his normal sweater vest combo for a pair of pajama pants and a long sleeve t-shirt. He was, as was usual, sitting with his computer in his lap.

"Did you guys get a new TV?" Wallace asked, walking in. He was already in pajama bottom and an old t-shirt.

"I got it with my last paycheck," Roy puffed up his chest proudly. "Too bad we don't have a game system. Or a DVD player. But at least we can watch TV together now."

"Kip, put that laptop away right now," came a stern voice from the doorway. Molly, her arms crossed, was staring down at Kip. Kip slowly lowered the lid, looking nervous. "We are all here because we are going to hang out and be friends, and that doesn't involve you hiding behind your screen!"

Wallace had been a little nervous at how intense Molly looked, but had quickly started to relax when she proved that she and Roy had, in fact, planned a fun game night for all of them. They had ordered pizza, chips and dip were on the counter, and there was soda to be had. They spent a few hours playing a board game that Wallace had never seen before, but once he had learned the rules, had found very fun. After a short round of throwing popcorn at each other, brought on by Roy accusing Kip of cheating, they decided to shelve the game.

"What do you guys want to do now?" Kip asked.

"Truth or Dare!" Roy cheered, while the others shushed him because it was one in the morning and people are sleeping, Roy!

"No. Don't agree to it," Kip pointed at Wallace, who had opened his mouth.

"Is it going to be what I think it's going to be?" Wallace asked.

"If you think they're going to dare us to stuff with each other, then yes, it will be exactly what you think it will be," Kip huffed.

"We'll keep it PG, and it won't all be stuff with you two," Roy protested.

"Kissing is PG, Roy! Implied sex is practically PG!" Kip countered.

"Fine, we'll keep it G," Molly offered.

"G still involves kissing. How do you think they resolve every Disney movie ever?" Kip brought his argument home.

"How about this?" Wallace broke in before the argument could continue. "Keep it G, and no kissing."

"Fine," Kip agreed.

"On the mouth," Roy broke in. Kip gave him a look. "What? Molly kisses you on the cheek all the time, and you never complain about that!"

"You don't tease me about dating her every time she does it," Kip muttered, but conceded with ill grace.

"I'm going first," Molly announced. "Truth or Dare, Kip?"

"Let's just get the dare we all know is coming out of the way," Kip sighed.

"Okay. I dare you and Wally to hold hands for the rest of the game. Fingers interlaced," Molly smirked.

"I see you're going with the slow torture before you get to what you really want," Kip shook his head, but slid off the couch to sit next to Wallace, lacing their fingers together.

"There. Is that so bad?" Molly asked.

"My turn," Kip ignored her, but his fingers twitched in Wallace's grip. "Truth or Dare, Roy?"

"Dare," Roy grinned.

"I dare you to play Bloody Mary," Kip grinned evilly.

"That's no fair!" Roy pouted.

"Oh? Are you chickening out of the dare?" Kip asked sarcastically.

"You wish. You and Wally aren't getting out of holding hands that easily," Roy shot back. They were playing with the rule that if anyone chickened out of a dare, in addition to whatever punishment they had to take, all standing dares were cancelled.

Molly got Roy a candle, and they crowded around the bathroom door for him to begin. He gulped as the door closed behind him. They heard him chant "Bloody Mary" three times, followed by a small shriek as Roy bolted out.

"You're terrible, Kip," Roy panted. "Truth or dare, Wally?"

"Truth," Wallace replied. He knew he was being a sissy, but he always chose Truth whenever he played this game.

"Have you ever thought about kissing Kip?"

"Um…yes?"

It was the truth, because he had, in fact, kissed Kip before, and of course he had spent the next few weeks obsessing over it. He and Kip were both blushing as Roy and Molly laughed, although not for the reason Roy and Molly thought. They were both thinking back to the kiss in the alley in District E.

"Okay, okay," Wallace said, once they had finally calmed down and the choruses of "You have a chance, Kip!" had died away. "Truth or Dare, Molly?"

The game continued, far longer than anyone expected it would have, because now they were all trying to top each other and get each other back. All of them were at least tipsy, since several dares had been shots or something similar. Wallace was feeling himself go to his happy place. He was a very happy, giggly drunk.

No one had chickened out of a dare yet, so Wallace and Kip were still holding hands. Additionally, because of a later dare, Kip was now sitting in Wallace's lap. Actually, he was sitting in front of Wallace, between his legs, since Wallace wasn't sitting cross-legged, but the result was the same.

"Truth or Dare, Wally?" Molly asked, cheeks flushed from the alcohol.

"Dare," Wallace said. He was starting to feel braver, especially since he'd had more to drink than any of the others.

"I dare you to kiss Kip on the cheek."

Wallace didn't even hesitate. He'd known this dare was coming eventually, and so had Kip. He leaned forward to press his lips to Kip's cheek.

The problem was, Kip had expected him to hesitate. He'd been turning his head towards Wallace, probably to make a snarky comment, just as Wallace was lowering his lips to where Kip's cheek had been. When he got there, though, Kip's cheek had been replaced with Kip's mouth, and their lips collided.

It only lasted about a second before they jumped apart, cheeks burning. Molly whistled and Roy, for once, was at a loss for words.

"Well, I promised to keep it G, Kip," Molly giggled. "I only said cheek. You made it lips."

"Shut up," Kip muttered, to more laughter from Molly and Roy. It was sleepy laughter, though, as it was four in the morning, and they were all starting to drift off. Kip and Wallace, however, were suddenly a lot more awake than the other two.

"We should call it a night," Molly yawned. "Don't go being too loud, you two."

"We're not going to be doing anything!" Kip snapped, although he was so tired that there wasn't much anger behind it.

"Yeah, yeah," Molly wavered her large hand as she hauled and already almost asleep Roy to his bedroom.

Wallace pulled Kip to his feet, since they were still holding hands. They were both swaying, having both had a fair amount to drink. They were still holding hands as they walked to Kip's bedroom, mostly to keep upright. Both were still blushing, and Wallace could tell he was going to have a bad headache tomorrow morning.

Kip muttered something that Wallace didn't catch as the door closed.

"Sorry?" Wallace asked, his words still clear, but his head definitely not.

"If you're going to kiss me, at least do it on purpose," Kip muttered a little louder. They both froze. They were drunk, but not drunk enough to ignore that. Kip met Wallace's eyes. His pride had put a challenge in them. Maybe it was because the alcohol had lowered his inhibitions, but Wallace took that challenge.

He put his hands on Kip's waist while Kip wound his arms around Wallace's neck, and suddenly they were kissing. It was like the kiss in the alley, but so much better, because they were both into it this time. Tongues gently probed before the kiss turned much more passionate, and Wallace couldn't remember ever kissing anyone like this.

They pulled apart, both grinning like idiots.

"Sleepy," Kip murmured. Wallace nodded. They ended up together on Kip's bed, cuddled together, not knowing the terrible hangover that was coming the next morning.


	10. Chapter 10

When Wallace woke up the next morning, his arm was thrown across Kip's waist, and Kip's head was one Wallace's chest. Wallace had a hazy memory of kissing Kip last night, first on accident, then on purpose. The memory cut out then, but Wallace was reasonably sure that kissing was all that they'd done.

Wallace thought about moving, but he was comfortable, both with his position and with having kissed Kip. Now that it had finally happened, it seemed like they had been inching closer to this for weeks, maybe even months. It felt…right. He cuddled a little closer to Kip, and was on the verge of closing his eyes and going back to sleep when Kip's eyes cracked open.

And then blew open wide.

"How did…why are you…what happened last night?" Kip stuttered, pulling away from Wallace and sitting up. Wallace propped himself onto one elbow.

"How much do you remember?" he asked Kip quietly. It appeared Kip was not as comfortable as Wallace was.

"I think…I'm pretty sure you kissed me," Kip stammered. "And I'm pretty sure I asked for it."

"You also kissed me back," Wallace offered helpfully.

"Wait…we didn't…" Kip trailed off, looking down at the bed, his cheeks turning blue. Wallace immediately got his implied question.

"Sleep together? As far as I can remember, no," Wallace told him.

"Okay. Good," Kip sighed, visibly calming down.

"Good?" Wallace repeated before he could stop himself. He knew his eyes were dropping to the bed, but he didn't feel like raising them.

"No no no, that's not what I meant!" Kip waved his hands, turning even bluer. "I just meant I didn't want the first time I slept with you to be when we were both so drunk we didn't even remember it!"

"The first time?" Wallace asked, his voice edging higher. Kip was so blue that it looked like his face was going to explode.

"Also not what I meant!" Kip squeaked, but they both winced as the high octave grated on their hangover headaches. "Can we maybe forget about this for a few days? Just until we both get over the hangovers and calm down a little?"

"We can ignore it for a few days, but I won't be able to forget it, Kip," Wallace said quietly, pinching the bridge of his nose and closing his eyes against the pounding. "Don't you have ice powers? I could sure use some ice for my head."

"I can't control it that well, and I don't trust myself," Kip shook his head, wincing. "If I wasn't careful, I could freeze this entire room over, you included."

They left Kip's room in search of water, Advil, and coffee. In that order.

"Hey Kip, Wally," Molly's tired voice came from the kitchen. She waved one enormous hand, the other curled around a mug of coffee, which she had apparently made, bless her.

"Roy up yet?" Kip rubbed one eye.

"I think he's working on the logic that if he doesn't wake up, he doesn't have to deal with his hangover," Molly sighed.

Wallace's hungover brain kept jumping around to different images. Kip saying "If I wasn't careful, I could freeze this entire room over". Molly's huge fists. Jerry telling him to be careful around the scary monsters. Crimmins almost threatening him for more information about monsters. Monsters protesting in the streets against being second class citizens.

A sudden burst of realization hit Wallace. He dimly registered a shattering sound, and realized that he must have dropped his coffee mug, but he was too frozen with his realization to care.

"Why are monsters second class citizens?" he asked in a whisper, more to himself that to Kip and Molly, but they turned to him just the same.

"Well, there's a lot of prejudice against us, and the government…" Molly started but Wallace cut her off.

"No, you don't get what I'm asking," Wallace interjected. "How is the government able to hold you guys down like this? Even though they live in different places, there are about the same numbers of monsters and humans. But monsters have powers, and humans don't. Kip, you said yourself that you could freeze a room over. Molly, with those fists of yours you would be a fantastic fighter. We know the separation of the districts got violent, but why would monsters come out on the bottom? We don't have technology now that could rival monster powers, and the separation of the districts was a long time ago. Monsters should have wiped the floor with humans. So why didn't they?"

Kip and Molly were silent, but from the looks the two were giving him, Wallace knew he was onto something important.

"Kip, I've been asking the wrong questions!" Wallace exclaimed, grabbing Kip's shoulders. "I kept asking why I had such a bad feeling and whether it had anything to do with the inequality, but what I should have been asking is how the inequality even existed!"

"But Wally, you know I can't really control the ice power," Kip protested.

"And I'm not really a fighter," Molly added. "I don't have much stamina. I never have."

"But has it always been this way? I mean, have monsters never been able to use their powers effectively?" Wallace asked. He knew he was onto something, and he wasn't about to let it die.

"Well, we have stories from before the separation of the districts," Molly said slowly, while Kip nodded. "Apparently, monsters could use their powers then. We always assumed it was because they were taught how to use them. Now, it's practically illegal to use powers, but back then, families would pass down gifts and teachings generation to generation."

"It all comes back to the separation of the districts," Wallace mused. "That's when the inequality started, that's when monsters became second class citizens, and that's when monsters stopped being able to use their powers. I have to call Jerry."

"Wally." Molly grabbed his arm. "Sit." He sat, and she put a glass of water down in front of him. "Drink it."

He did as he was told while Molly said, "I know you're excited and you think you're onto something big, but at least wait until you calm down, think it through, and get over your hangover. This is dangerous stuff, so don't go rushing in before you see where you're going."

"Okay. I'll wait a few days," Wallace promised.

"Good," Molly said, and she bustled off, probably to try to convince Roy that sleep wasn't going to postpone his hangover forever. Wallace turned to Kip.

"And in a few days, we need to have a conversation," he said. Kip opened his mouth but Wallace pushed on. "Work out whatever it is you need to work out, but then talk to me. While you're thinking, remember this: I'm okay with kissing you. I'm okay with a whole lot more."

Wallace stood up, grabbing his stuff as he swung out the door. He couldn't resist one peek over his shoulder, and in that one look, he saw Kip staring after him, mouth open, face as blue as Wallace had ever seen it.


	11. Chapter 11

A few days came and went, and Wallace was no less sure of his idea than he was that morning in Kip's apartment. He had even asked his clients about their ability to use their powers, subtly of course. It seemed that they all had some sort of specific weakness that prevented them from using their powers effectively, like Molly's low stamina kept her from using any fighting ability. He knew he needed to talk to Jerry now. There had to be a reason that monsters had come out on the bottom during the separation of the districts.

"Wallace, hi!" Jerry greeted him enthusiastically. "I'd been hoping to hear from you soon. How's everything going?"

"It's going fine," Wallace answered. "Actually, I need to ask for a favor."

"You already called in your favor, remember?" Jerry reminded him.

"I know. I'm going to owe you after this is over," Wallace told him. "I need you to look into why monsters can't use their powers."

"Monsters can't use their powers?" Jerry asked.

"Not successfully, no," Wallace said. "Every one I've talked to has a specific weakness that prevents them from using their powers effectively. And while you're at it, I need you to look into why monsters lost out after the separation of the districts. With their powers, they should have come out on top, but now they're second class citizens and they can't even use their powers. There has to be a reason why."

"You're going to owe me big time for this," Jerry warned.

"Anything you want. You know this is important."

"Come back to visit and play wingman for me," Jerry said. "Girls love you. Think you're adorable, for some reason."

"You know I'm not into that," Wallace shifted uncomfortably. While it was true that he'd been attracted to some girls in his life, they were few and far between. He was much more commonly attracted to guys, and as Jerry had been his close friend since high school, he should know this.

"No, that's what makes you the best wingman," Jerry went on. "They come over to talk to you because they think you're cute, but then you turn out to be gay, so they choose the next best thing: me, sitting right next to you."

"Technically, I'm pretty sure I'm bi," Wallace pointed out, walking out his door and toward Kip, Molly, and Roy's apartment.

"For as little as you've ever liked girls, you might as well be gay," Jerry countered.

"You would deserve it if the one time I'm attracted to a girl is when you want me to play your gay wingman," Wallace laughed, earning him a weird look and a blush from Kip as Kip walked out his door.

"I'll take my chances," Jerry assured him before saying goodbye.

"Who were you talking to?" Kip asked as Wallace lowered his phone.

"My friend Jerry. He's the one who's been helping me look into stuff from District A," Wallace told him.

"And in return he wants to go back to District A and play 'gay wingman' for him?" Kip actually used air quotes around "gay wingman".

"Yeah. According to him, that makes me the best kind of wingman."

"I didn't know you were gay."

"Technically, I'm bi, but yeah, I do mostly hang out on the gay end of the spectrum." Wallace rubbed the back of his neck self-consciously. He wasn't ashamed of himself and never really had been, but he wasn't always comfortable talking about himself this much. "I didn't realize you cared."

"You've kind of given me a good reason to care."

"True. Speaking of which, have you figured anything out?" Wallace asked, his cheeks turning slightly pink.

"Um, yeah. Do you, maybe, want to go get coffee?" Kip stammered, refusing to look at Wallace. "I'm not saying this is a permanent thing, but maybe we could…try it out a little?"

"So I guess that means you want me to hold back on making out with you until you get a little more comfortable?" Wallace replied, biting back a smile. Kip choked.

"Were you actually going to…?"

"No. I'm teasing. If you want to start out by just testing the waters, that's fine. We'll figure it out."

"Thank you." Kip looked down, refusing to meet Wallace's eyes, his cheeks still blue.

They ended up in Cuddy's again, this time for an actual date. Wallace was holding in a (very unmanly) squeal. He was actually on a date with Kip. He'd expected Kip to turn him down, so was pleasantly surprised that Kip was willing to give a relationship a shot.

Surprisingly, despite how nervous Kip seemed, it went well. After a few minutes of awkward silence, they fell back into the same routine they always did. Having become good friends, they could easily carry a conversation for a long time. Sometimes the topics were work related, sometimes they were about Molly and Roy's latest antics. They danced carefully around any talk about being a couple, because right now, they weren't sure what they were.

They walked home together, still talking and laughing. Wallace walked Kip to his door (he had long been instilled with good manners).

"I…actually, I had fun," Kip laughed a little.

"So did I," Wallace replied, rubbing his hand through his hair.

"Thanks for being such a good sport," Kip said, dropping his eyes.

"Hey, no problem. I'm good with your pace," Wallace told him.

"I should go in." Kip put his hand on the doorknob.

"Okay." Before he could think twice, Wallace leaned in and pressed his lips to Kip's cheek. He just had time to hear Kip's stuttered gasp and see his cheeks turn blue before Wallace turned, walking away.

"I'll see you tomorrow!" he called over his shoulders, ignoring Kip's splutters.

His phone rang.

"Hey Jerry," he said, a smile still in his voice from Kip's reaction.

"Wallace, you're not going to believe this." Jerry sounded almost panicked.

"Jerry, what's going on? What did you find?" Wallace asked in alarm.

"I can't tell you over the phone. I have no idea who could be listening," Jerry replied. "I found something big, but I have to tell you in person. How soon can you get to District A?"

Wallace felt cold. He had known Jerry for a long time, and never had he heard Jerry's voice quite this scared. Whatever he had found, it was serious.

"I can be there in two days."


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And now that I have (mostly) worked out all my Kip x Wallace feels, on with the plot! Also, this chapter just resisted being written.

Two days later, Wallace was on a train to District A. In his mind, he kept questioning what it could have been that Jerry had found. It had to be serious. It had to be the key to all of Wallace’s questions.

Wallace was on the train by himself. He was worried about being watched, and while it seemed perfectly reasonable that he might want to go back to District A to visit his friends, it might look suspicious if he returned with monsters. He was probably being too paranoid, but it was better to be safe than sorry. Kip hadn’t been happy about it, though.

“We’ve been working on this together, why shouldn’t I be there?” Kip had asked, sounding almost whiny.

“You know I’m going to tell you everything as soon as I know it, but Jerry seemed pretty sure that this was serious. He wouldn’t even talk about it over the phone. If he’s that worried about being watched, I don’t want to look suspicious by bringing a monster back to District A.”

“I thought you didn’t care about the monster thing,” Kip shot back.

“You know I don’t, but the government does, and I _do_ care about you being safe!”

The argument was just about to get heated when Molly cut in.

“Ooo, is this your first fight?” she squealed.

“Not now, Molly,” Kip sighed, but all the anger had drained from his voice. “Just…promise you’ll be careful, yeah?” he turned to Wallace.

“I will. I’ll tell you everything when I get back,” Wallace promised. He kissed Kip on the cheek before leaving for the train station.

Wallace and Jerry had had matching briefcases in high school, and Jerry had instructed Wallace to bring his. This was starting to feel like spy stuff, and Wallace couldn’t help but wonder just what Jerry had found out.

They ended up seated next to each other in a nightclub, drinks in hand, identical briefcases leaning against each other.

“So, what’s so secret that I had to come all the way back here?” Wallace asked, trying not to look guilty.

“It’s major,” Jerry murmured back. “It’s definitely the reason monsters lost out.”

Before he could continue, a couple of girls, giggling behind their hands, approached them.

“My friend thinks you’re cute,” the bolder of the two aimed at Wallace as her shyer friend made a high pitched squeaking sound. “Want to dance with her?”

“Sorry, I have a boyfriend,” Wallace tried to look apologetic.

“Are you his…?” she pointed to Jerry.

“No, tragically, I am heterosexual,” Jerry laughed. “I would be interested in a dance, if the offer’s open.”

The bolder girl giggled as she held her hand out. The shyer girl gave Wallace one more look of regret before she retreated. Wallace sighed. Even without the tension of the clandestine hand off, this wasn’t his idea of a good time. However, he couldn’t deny that he owed it to Jerry, and this was exactly Jerry’s idea of a good time.

He watched patiently as Jerry danced his way around the dance floor, wishing the night was over so he could go home and figure out what was going on. It was strange that, although he had spent most of his life in District A, his apartment in District C now felt like home to him.

Finally, though, Jerry finished making his way around the dance floor. He quietly picked up Wallace’s briefcase, said goodbye, and walked away. Wallace sighed, letting out the breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding. It was time to leave.

Wallace spent the entire train ride home resisting the urge to look in the briefcase. He texted Kip as he stepped off the train. When he got back to the apartment, Kip was waiting for him in the lobby.

“What did you find out?” he asked Wallace without preamble.

“I don’t know, but apparently everything we need to know is in this briefcase.” Wallace held up the briefcase in question.

They almost ran to Wallace’s apartment, and once the door was locked, they opened the briefcase.

Much like last time Jerry had found something for Wallace, there were a lot of official looking documents with parts blacked out. Wallace handed Kip half the stack as he started to read over the first page. It wasn’t long before he was sitting frozen, staring at the words on the page.

“What?” Kip asked, looking up.

“I know why monsters are second class citizens,” Wallace whispered.

“Why?”

“Look at this,” Wallace showed Kip where he had been reading. “Right before humans starting fighting monsters during the separation of the districts, human scientists developed technology that cancels out monster powers.”

“That’s possible?” Kip asked. “Didn’t monsters have scientists? Why didn’t they come up with anything to counter this?”

“I’m not sure they even knew about it,” Wallace admitted. “I guess it makes sense. Humans don’t have any powers that monsters are afraid of, so why would monster scientists look at this technology?”

“I think I found something about that lab we went to in District E,” Kip said. Wallace leaned in to look over Kip’s shoulder. “It makes more sense with that technology that cancels monster powers. Apparently some monsters are being able to use their powers around that.”

“Really? Like they’re adapting to it?” Wallace asked.

“I guess. The monsters in that lab we saw were there because they could use their powers in spite of that…force field, or whatever. This says that the government wants to know why.”

There was silence as both of them shuffled through the rest of the pages, unable to look at each other.

“Hey! This shows the location of the machines that control the force field!” Wallace perked up, shoving the paper at Kip. “There’s one in each district. If we could destroy them, monsters would be able to use their powers again.”

“You’re right,” Kip mused, looking at the paper. “But we’re going to have to talk to Roy and Molly about this tomorrow. This is too big for just the two of us.”


	13. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I would just like to start this off by apologizing for the lack of updates. I’m studying abroad in Spain currently and have a hard time switching between languages. I will be back in the States in December, so if this story isn’t finished by then the updates will be much more frequent. I plan to make this 5-6 more chapters and maybe an epilogue, so I might be able to finish it up before December (no promises though).

“You two have been doing WHAT?!” Molly shrieked.

“I can’t believe neither of you told me!” Roy cut in. “You know I would have been only too happy to help, and this is exactly the kind of thing I want to do, changing the world for monsters, one goal at a time…”

“ROY! Not the time!” Molly cut him off. “What exactly were you two thinking?”

“Calm down,” Kip held his hands up in surrender. “We didn’t realize it would be like this when we first started looking into it.”

“We kind of just stumbled on that lab, and I never would have guessed what Jerry would find,” Wallace added, backing Kip up.

“How long exactly have you two known about this?” Molly asked, hands on hips.

“Well…”

“We found the lab a few months ago,” Kip admitted, looking away. “Wallace’s friend found some documents that told us some stuff about the separation of the districts a little while ago. And we found out about the force field when Wallace got back from District A last night. Which is why we’re telling you now.”

“You two idiots!” Molly snapped, slapping them both in the heads, but lightly enough that it didn’t really hurt. “You could’ve gotten yourselves into serious trouble and you’re only just NOW telling us anything! We’re your friends, of course we want to help!”

“We need it,” Wallace broke in. “We know where all the machines that control the force field are, and how they’re guarded, and a little about how they work so we know how to take them out of commission. But we can’t do it on our own.”

“You know, Wally,” Molly sighed. “You’ve kind of been a bad influence on Kip. I don’t know how I feel about you continuing to date him.” But Wallace could see the hint of a smile poking out from behind her hand.

“Molly? I’m literally older than you,” Kip complained.

“Kipland Kaizer! Do not take that tone with me!” Molly was having way too much fun with this now.

“Yes ma’am,” Kip sighed grudgingly, but he was grinning too.

“So what’s the plan?”           

“Well, I was thinking…”

 

_A month later…_

 

Wallace had known, before this whole thing had started, that the machine that blocked monster powers would be complicated. He’d seen the diagrams that Jerry had provided. He’d memorized, however he could, what the different buttons and levers did. But that was nothing compared to the real thing. The machine in front of him was a mass of different moving parts, a mixture of older technology and newer from updates that had been made. And Wallace was in over his head.

 _I’m a social worker, not an engineer,_ Wallace grumbled in his thoughts.

“Wally! Hurry up,” Kip hissed. Kip was keeping a look-out because, even with his limited control over his ice powers, he still had the best chance out of all of them at keeping enemies at bay. So he was guarding Wallace while Roy and Molly kept watch down the hallways, ready to signal if there was trouble.

“This isn’t easy, Kip,” Wallace hissed back, but he started to move. Now that he was actually doing something, he could recognize at least some of the parts. He loosened screws with the wrench he had brought and pulled down levers, breaking them off so that they couldn’t be pushed back up, destroyed buttons. The machine was clunking and stuttering, eventually coming to a halt. Wallace sighed. It was time for the hardest part.

The core of the machine was what really kept monster powers at bay, and that was what Wallace had to get to. From the documents they had from Jerry, it seemed the core was made out of incredibly rare materials and was particularly difficult to make. If the core was destroyed, it would take the government at least a year to replace even one, and they planned to destroy all five.

Wallace crawled gingerly over the moving pieces of the machine that had just come to a rest. Even though he was reasonably sure they were still and wouldn’t start to move, he was wary of how fast they had been moving.

 _If this thing starts up again, I’m dead_ , his brain supplied, which wasn’t a super helpful observation at the time.

He made it to the core unscathed. It glowed with an eerie green light, but looked surprisingly delicate for something that was causing so much damage. It just looked like a pulsing light in a glass case. There were no screws or buttons like Wallace had hoped.

So he did the only thing he could think of. He swung the wrench as hard as he could, shattering the glass. Heat rushed out at him, burning his hands and arms. He screamed, but the sound was drowned by the roar of whatever was in the core rushing out at him.

“Wally!” he heard Kip yell. Whatever had happened when he broke the core, it was over as soon as it had begun.

“I…I’m fine,” Wallace gasped back.

“There’s no way no one heard that, we have to run,” Kip insisted. Wallace climbed to his feet to follow Kip out the door.

Roy and Molly were already rushing up to meet them.

“What happened?” Molly asked.

“Wally broke the core,” Kip replied. “We have to run.”

And run they did, narrowly avoiding a group of guards as they made their way outside. They didn’t relax, not until they were walking into their apartment building twenty minutes later.

“What happened to your hands?” Molly asked Wallace, once they stepped into the light and she could see him clearly.

“This happened when I broke the core,” Wallace replied, looking down at his hands. They were angry and red, with livid blisters raised from his fingers almost up to his elbows. However, he couldn’t see any charred skin, for which he was grateful. Every part of the burns hurt like it was still burning, but he knew it felt much worse than it looked.

“Why didn’t you tell me this happened?” Kip asked, starting to reach for Wallace’s hands before he seemed to think better of it.

“Because we were running for our lives?”

“Idiot.”

Wallace noticed Molly and Roy edging their way into their own bedrooms, but ignored that when he thought he saw a glimmer in Kip’s eyes.

“Kip? Are you…crying?”

“No. Maybe. Yes. Shut up,” Kip scrubbed a hand furiously across his eyes.

“I’ll be fine.”

“I know. Shut up. I’m good.”

“Since we took out the machine…you should be able to use your powers, at least in District C. Do you think you could…I don’t know, use the ice powers to help me?”

“Just because I don’t have a machine blocking my powers doesn’t mean I have the practice or skill not to hurt you,” Kip shook his head. “I’ll get you some ice from the kitchen.”

Kip grabbed a few ice packs from the freezer, wrapping them in towels as Wallace sat at the table. Kip laid the packs on Wallace’s hands and arms gently. Sitting down, Wallace was shorter than Kip. He was looking up to thank Kip when he felt a hand under his chin. Kip pressed a gentle kiss onto his lips, which Wallace leaned into as best he could with his arms covered in ice packs.

“Be more careful next time,” Kip whispered, pulling away.

“Next time?”

“We have four more of these to go, I don’t want you getting this burned every time.”

“I’ll be more careful. Promise.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to everyone who commented! You guys give me the life I need to keep writing. I promise to try to be less of a poop and keep updating (I know where I’m going with this, I promise).


	14. Chapter 14

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First of all, you guys who follow/comment are literally the nicest human beings on this planet. I have gotten nothing but positivity from you. Apologies for the lack of updates, I promise I’m working on this. Second, it has come to my attention that this ship’s name is Kiplace, which is completely adorable to me, so that’s fun.

_A few weeks later…_

_This feels familiar_ , Wallace thought, guarding the door to the room with the machine that inhibited the powers of the monsters of District D. This time, Kip was the one dismantling the machine. He’d remained sensitive about the subject of Wallace’s burned arms. Wallace had assured him that he was fine multiple times, and as his arms healed with minimal scarring, Kip had started to calm down.

In the few weeks since they’d destroyed the machine in District C, Kip had been working on controlling his ice powers, and had found that he could coat his skin with ice in a way that would keep him from getting burned. In the presence of a power-inhibiting machine, he likely wouldn’t have the control he needed to keep something like that up, but he was still the one out of the four of them best equipped to deal with whatever was in the core.

Wallace bounced on the balls of his feet, listening to Kip moving around and clanking against things, peeking both ways down the hall to make sure no one was coming. A loud roaring sound let him know that Kip had destroyed the core.

“Come on, we have to run.” Wallace was careful not to touch Kip’s arms as they raced from the building, just in case they were burned.

They made it outside without a hitch, and met Molly and Roy at the train station.

“How are your arms?” Wallace asked Kip.

“Not too bad.” Kip held up his arms for Wallace’s inspection. While they were tinged a strange purple color, they looked much better than the blistering Wallace had gotten when he’d broken the core in District C.

“Two down, three to go,” Molly commented.

 

_Two months later…_

 

Monsters were beginning to discover that the limits they’d had placed on their powers for their entire lives were gone now. Wallace, Kip, Molly, and Roy had managed to destroy four out of the five inhibiting machines. Only the machine in District A remained.

Kip had been waging his own battle online. Using an anonymous blog and every hacking skill he had, he had leaked the documents about the machines to the internet. While it didn’t seem like a lot of people knew from daily life, the blog kept going up in hits, and there was a general feeling of unease through the districts. People were spreading the word, quietly and just among themselves, that they had been wronged by the government that had oppressed them for so long. Monsters were learning that their ability to fight back had been taken from them, but now had been given back.

That feeling of unease was starting to turn to anger.

Wallace had a bigger thing to look forward to now, though. The last machine was in District A, which meant he couldn’t take Kip, Molly, and Roy with him. Monsters weren’t allowed in District A.

“So why do they even have the machine there?” Kip had wondered when they were making the plans for Wallace to take out the last machine. “If monsters aren’t allowed in, why would they need it there anyway?”

“Just because they don’t allow monsters in doesn’t mean monsters can’t get in,” Wallace reasoned. “It’s probably there in case of a rebellion or something.”

Kip had given him a long, considering look at that.

“You know a war is probably coming, right, Wally?” Kip had asked softly. “I’d prefer to settle this peacefully, but if humans keep oppressing monsters like they are now…it’s only so long before people snap, you know?”

“I know. I know that could happen,” Wallace had sighed, dropping his head onto Kip’s shoulder. “Much as I don’t want it to.”

“Be careful in District A,” Kip said, shaking Wallace out of his memories. They were standing at the train station. Kip was seeing Wallace off as Wallace headed to District A to destroy the final machine with Jerry.

“I will be. You know that.”

“Stick to the plan, and stick close to Jerry.”

“I know, Kip. We’ve been over the plan.”

“I wish I was the one helping you.”

“I know.”

Kip flung himself at Wallace, locking arms around his neck and pulling him down into a kiss. It was a lot more passionate, and a lot more desperate, than anything they’d shared in the past few weeks.

“Don’t die. Please,” Kip said as he pulled back, staring at the ground. “You wouldn’t be easy to replace.”

“I won’t. I promise.”

Wallace had to board the train then, but he couldn’t take his eyes off Kip’s. They stared at each other until the train pulled them apart.

Wallace found Jerry easily, and the two waited for nightfall. If they could succeed in destroying this machine, monsters would once again have the advantage across the entire country. If not…it was only a matter of time before the government got the machines working again.

Wallace was, once again, dismantling the machine, but this time it was Jerry keeping watch. Jerry shifted nervously behind Wallace. Wallace couldn’t help thinking that Kip had been a lot calmer, despite the fact that Kip seemed like a more nervous person in general.

Wallace had taken the precaution of wearing thick gloves, but when he smashed the core, the gloves were burned away. He shuffled back with a muffled screech, turning and yelling for Jerry to run. Jerry bolted out ahead of Wallace as Wallace struggled to keep up. An alarm was blaring, which was a new thing for these missions for Wallace. It seemed the machine was even more closely guarded here in District A than in any of the other districts.

“Going somewhere?” A guard stepped out in front of Wallace. Wallace froze, trying to turn and run the other way, but the guard grabbed him too quickly. He couldn’t see Jerry anymore.

“Now, now, no more running,” the guard laughed sarcastically. “Someone would like a few words with you.”

Wallace stopped struggling and let the guard drag him along. If he was going to get out of this, he was going to have to think his way out, because he wasn’t strong enough to fight his way out.

“Well, well, Mr. Foster,” came a familiar voice from the room Wallace was dragged into. “I must confess myself disappointed. I had much more faith in you.”

“Mr. Crimmins?” Wallace gasped. What was he doing here? Crimmins was supposed to be in social work, not a secret government machine that was used to oppress half the people of the country. “Why are you here?”

“Patience, Foster. There’s someone else here to see you that should really be in on this conversation,” Crimmins smirked. God, how Wallace had come to hate that smirk in his voice. It figured that it was even worse in person. “Look, they’re waiting for you here.”

Wallace turned to look into the doorway Crimmins indicated, and he felt his heart drop from his chest. He couldn’t breathe.

“Kip?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am currently writing the next chapter, it will not take me as long to post it since I don't want to leave you guys on a cliffhanger for so long.


	15. Chapter 15

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What? An update in a reasonable amount of time? Shocking.  
> I’m finally getting to the ending, which is always my favorite part to write. I should be wrapping this up in a few more chapters.

“Hi, Wally,” Kip murmured, looking down at his hands. Hands that, Wallace noticed, were shaking, but gripping tightly to hide it.

“Imagine our surprise when we found classified documents circulating the internet,” Crimmins cut in with a maddeningly calm voice. “It took a while-you’re very clever-but we eventually traced them back to Mr. Kaizer here. Of course, there’s no way Mr. Kaizer could possibly have access to those documents, so we knew he had an accomplice. Machines were being destroyed in all the districts, so we knew we only had to wait in District A for the accomplice to show up. I must confess my disappointment that the accomplice is you, Mr. Foster. You could have lived a long, comfortable life had you just kept your head down and gone about your work as I told you to.”

Wallace gulped at the barely concealed threat.

“However, as you were in District C, and those documents exist only as hard copies here in District A, there’s no way you could have had access to them either, Mr. Foster,” Crimmins continued smoothly. “So, to kick this interrogation off, who is your accomplice here in District A?”

“I got those documents myself,” Wallace whispered. He was proud that his voice didn’t shake. There was no way he was going to sell Jerry out at this stage. Just having Kip here was bad enough. He didn’t even want to think about what might be happening with Molly and Roy.

Crimmins backhanded him. Hard.

“Wally!” Kip gasped as Wallace straightened back up. His jaw _hurt_ , and he could taste blood.

“I’m not lying. I got those documents myself.”

“It is very obvious that you are lying, Mr. Foster, as it would have been impossible for you to get those documents by yourself.”

“Maybe your security isn’t as tight as you think it is,” Wallace spat back. “I got those documents myself.”

“A well-rehearsed lie,” Crimmins shook his head.

Kip grabbed Wallace’s hand. Wallace could feel how badly he was shaking.

“Ugh. Do you actually think that monster cares about you?” Crimmins scorned, looking at their clasped hands. Wallace gripped Kip’s hand tighter.

“Of course I do,” Wallace shot back. “He’s a person, of course I believe that.”

“Disgusting,” Crimmins spat. “You really are a lost cause.”

“A lost cause for what?”

“You were meant to keep the monsters in District C in check. Find their weaknesses, let them think they were receiving services, keep them complacent. But we never thought you would actually sleep with one. Come on, man, weren’t you scared of those monsters before you left?”

“First of all, we’re not. Sleeping together, I mean. Second of all, yeah, I was scared of monsters before I moved to District C and met some and found out that they’re all just people, just like humans.” Wallace was starting to get angry now.

“You’re not even sleeping together?” Crimmins asked in disbelief. “What’s even the point, then?”

“If you have to ask, you wouldn’t understand,” Wallace answered coldly. “Why are you so against monsters, anyway?”

“Isn’t it obvious?” Crimmins smirked. “They’re abominations. Do you know how monsters came to be in this world?”

“No,” Kip answered, finally speaking up. He was gripping Wallace’s hand so hard that by now it was starting to hurt, but Wallace wouldn’t tell him to stop. Kip was clearly terrified, even if he was doing a good job of hiding it.

“A long time ago, there were no monsters anywhere. Just humans,” Crimmins said as he sat across from Wallace and Kip, clearly settling in for a long story. “After a while, some humans started to be born with strange powers. They were feared, because they had powers that could overwhelm a normal human. They were different. They were forced away from normal humans for the protection of all.

“But the younger generations wanted these different humans to come back. They argued that, just because they were different, didn’t mean they were dangerous. However, in their years away from human society, they had bred and multiplied, and were now the monsters that we know today. The government put laws into place, to keep normal humans safe from the monsters. These laws prevented monsters from having positions of leadership, and especially prevented unions between monsters and humans. We had to keep the abnormalities from being passed on to human children.

“The monsters revolted, and the machines were created to protect humans from their powers. We separated the country into districts to keep monsters away from humans. And that brings us to today, where monsters are trying to upset the balance once again. You two are upsetting the balance. We might have been willing to overlook your…relationship…in light of the fact that it will spawn no half breed children. We could not overlook the relationship between the last human we sent to deal with the monsters, as she was female and he was male.”

“But…you just said that monsters are just people,” Wallace said slowly. “They’re just humans with powers. They’re just a little different.”

“That difference is exactly why they are separated!” Crimmins slammed his hand down on the table, making Wallace and Kip jump. “Those powers, those differences, are dangerous!”

“They’re just people,” Wallace said softly.

“They’re monsters.” Crimmins shook his head. “I expected better of you, Mr. Foster. It seems that you will have to be cast in with the monsters now. How will you survive among them without their powers, I wonder? It doesn’t matter to me any longer. You have betrayed humans, and we no longer care about your wellbeing.”

Crimmins stood up and walked to the door.

“You two will stay here. I will be back to ask you again, Mr. Foster, who your accomplice in District A is.”

Once he left, Wallace turned to Kip.

“What happened to you?” he asked, smoothing his thumb over Kip’s hand.

“They took me in the middle of the night,” Kip sighed shakily. He leaned in close to Wallace to whisper in his ear, obviously wary of being watched. “Molly and Roy were out, so I don’t think they got them.”

“I destroyed the machine here,” Wallace whispered back, just as quietly. “Do you think you could use your powers to get us out of here?”

“Probably,” Kip intoned. “I don’t want to be here for any longer than necessary.”

“Then let’s bust out.”

They stood up and walked to the door. As expected, it was locked. Wallace slammed the wooden chair against the table until a leg broke off. He held it tightly.

“Okay, let’s get out of here.”

Kip held his hand against the doorknob, frost spreading across the metal, until it cracked a few times. He turned the doorknob and stepped back out of the way cautiously. There was no one outside the door. Wallace relaxed from the ready pose he had assumed.

They crept out, looking both ways. There was no one in sight, but the sounds of voices, footsteps, and rustling were everywhere. They crept down the hall, looking about furtively.

As they made their way to an exit, they could hear the voices getting louder. A few times, a guard appeared, and Kip coated the floor in ice to make them slip. Once, a guard popped up directly next to them, and Wallace swung hard with his chair leg, leaving the guard dazed and confused behind them.

Finally, they made it outside. They knew better than to try to get on a train, so instead they headed into the woods surrounding the complex they had been in. They were going to have to walk back to District C.

“We have to get people to come to District A and protest,” Kip told Wallace, now that they were in relative safety. “It’s the only way this is going to end. We have to spread the word that monsters are basically just humans, and that the government has been oppressing them for years.”

“We have to get back to District C first and find Molly and Roy,” Wallace agreed. “We’re going to have to walk. It’s going to take all night.”

“We should get going, then.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whoo actually getting to the point! I should have another chapter up soon (I hope) and I will aim to finish this up in the next 2 or 3 chapters.


	16. Chapter 16

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> “I’ll have the next chapter up soon,” I said. “I’m almost done,” I said. *sobs* You guys are the nicest humans on the planet for putting up with me. You have been nothing but nice to me even when I don’t deserve it. I’m back Stateside now and am speaking English on a daily basis again, so I really want to finish this up.

“Thank God,” Kip breathed as they finally reached the outskirts of their town. Molly and Roy were waiting to meet them, having received Kip’s text last night. The sun was already up part of the way.

“You two are safe,” Molly sighed in relief when they reached her, sweeping them both into a tight hug.

“Not for long,” Wallace said. “We were lucky to escape, but they’ll be after us again. We need to be in hiding, and we need to bring the protests to District A. We need to end this before someone gets hurt.” He side eyed Kip.

“We told Kate and Cuddy everything,” Roy broke in. “And they’re going to help, of course, because they support equality between humans and monsters, so they’ve been calling people they think we can trust and telling them what’s going on, and we might be able to gather a protest march, with both humans and monsters, and…”

“Roy, please, they’re dead on their feet,” Molly hushed him. It was true. Kip was leaning heavily on Wallace, practically asleep standing up, and Wallace wasn’t faring much better. “We called some friends and they’ve agreed to hide you and keep you safe, at least until we can organize anything more concrete.”

“We’ll put them in danger,” Wallace protested.

“Wally, for what you and Kip are trying to do for all of us, they’re willing to take the risk,” Molly reassured him. She and Roy led them into town, Wallace practically carrying Kip. “Besides, they said they owe you one.”

“Me? Why?” Wallace asked.

“Why don’t you ask them yourselves?” Molly suggested, leading them up to a door. Wallace finally realized where they were.

“This is Charlie Flannigan’s house,” Wallace whispered.

“I called Louise,” Molly told him. “They said they asked Charlie, and both of them agreed to give you a place to stay for a few days while you try to figure out what you’re doing next.”

“That’s nice of them,” Wallace said. “But Charlie’s still afraid of the government and being taken again, even if therapy has been helping him. This could get him back to the same place, or worse.”

“Charlie and Louise think it’s worth it,” Molly told him. “Don’t stand outside too long, you’ll attract attention.”

She rapped on the door, and a moment later it swung open to reveal Louise. They looked around to make sure no one else was there.

“Come in. Hurry,” they said, holding the door open. Wallace dragged Kip inside. “Good luck getting back, Molly, Roy.”

“Thanks Louise,” Molly waved.

“Thank you for risking yourself for us,” Wallace told Louise. They waved him off.

“You helped Charlie a lot, and you’re trying to help all of us,” they said. “We want to help you.”

They showed Wallace and Kip to a room in the basement.

“There’s only this one room, but it’s well hidden,” they said. “There’s a panel over here that you can hide behind if you need to.”

“You have a hidden panel?” Wallace asked.

“After everything we’ve been through, you can never be too careful,” Louise replied darkly. “I’ll leave you two alone. From what Molly told me, you need your rest.”

They walked back upstairs. Wallace laid Kip gently on the bed before tugging his sweater vest over his head and working open the buttons of his shirt. He got the shirt off and worked Kip’s pants down until Kip was in his boxers. Wallace tucked Kip under the covers and stepped back to pull his own shirt and pants off. Kip whined.

“I know you’re cold, I’ll be right there,” Wallace reassured him. He slid under the covers beside Kip, wrapping his arms around him. Now that Kip wasn’t using all his strength to fight exhaustion and stay upright, he was shaking with fear again. Wallace pulled him in tighter, stroking a hand between his shoulder blades.

“Shh. I know you’re scared, but we’re safe for now. I’ll stay here with you, so get some sleep, and whatever happens, we’ll deal with it tomorrow. Just remember that we’re safe, and I’ll look after you, and we’ll be okay.”

Kip’s shaking died down as he burrowed closer to Wallace. Wallace tried not to hiss at the touch of cold hands against his skin. He kept holding Kip, and soon enough Kip’s icy fingertips warmed up. They were both exhausted from the long walk, but Kip beat Wallace to sleep. Wallace gave him a sleepy forehead kiss before drifting off as well.

The next morning, having slept all day and through the night, Kip was up with a fervor, using his phone to blog about everything they’d learned. There was an almost instantaneous reaction online. People were outraged at the idea that although monsters were basically just humans that were a little different, they were treated as second class citizens. A lot of people were calling for more drastic action, but Kip was trying to encourage people to join together at Cuddy’s to march to District A to protest peacefully.

Wallace personally thought that, with monster powers back online in all five districts, a protest involving that many monsters should pressure the government into backing down. That many people with working powers would be a force to be reckoned with.

Finally, with most of the people online calmed enough to agree to march peacefully to District A, a time was sent to meet at Cuddy’s, and Kip was in full panic mode.

“Calm down, we’re going to be fine,” Wallace tried to soothe him, squeezing his hand, which he had quickly found was the only part Kip would allow him to touch without flinching.

“There are a lot of things that can go wrong, Wally. We’re wanted, for one thing.”

“Well, you have a better chance of making it than I do. You’re the one with ice powers.”

Kip’s jaw dropped.

“DO YOU THINK YOU ARE HELPING?!” he shrieked. “BECAUSE YOU ARE NOT HELPING!”

“Okay, okay, I’m sorry,” Wallace held his hands up. “Look, just…I know you’re freaking out, and you deserve to freak out, but we kind of need to go, and I need you to hold yourself together. Do you think you can contain your freak out?”

“Yeah,” Kip said, more to himself than Wallace. “Yeah, okay, I can do this.”

They walked to Cuddy’s hand in hand. At the sight of all the monsters and few humans waiting to march with them, Kip’s hand tightened on Wallace’s. He looked up with a determined expression.

“Let’s do this.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Am I aware that this is basically a filler chapter? Yes. Am I sorry? Eternally. The next chapter will be all climax and the original plan was to have that chapter the same as this one, but…too long. I’m trying to finish this before classes start up.  
> Notice that I'm confident enough in the remaining chapters to have finally given an estimate. Probably 2 more and an epilogue.


	17. Chapter 17

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know I was supposed to update quickly, but my real life happened. However, there’s only one more chapter after this, and it’s an epilogue! So I’m basically done. Thank you for sticking with me.

On they marched. Wallace had expected quiet, expected stoicism, but that was hardly what was happening. People around them chatted, caught up with friends they hadn’t seen in a while. People helped other people who were in some way disabled, people laughed, people traded stories.

Sure, the undercurrent of anger was still there, but people around them seemed _happy._

“It’s because things are finally going to change,” Kip said quietly from Wallace’s side. “We’ve been doing the same thing for so long. People are relieved it’s finally going to change.”

“What if it changes for the worse?” Wallace asked.

“What if it changes for the best?”

On they marched. People started joining them as they walked through the other districts. Wallace expected the monsters. He didn’t expect all the humans. His only explanation was Kip’s blog. In the face of all the injustice monsters had faced, even humans had to be swayed.

Kate, Cuddy, and Wallace were mostly in charge of integrating humans in. While some of them had come with monster friends to march, many were by themselves or in small groups, glancing at monsters warily. Even if they agreed that the way monsters were being treated was wrong, they were still scared of the monsters. Wallace did his best to help them feel less afraid.

On they marched.

***

It took all of them the better part of the day to reach District A, and when they got there they’d gathered hundreds of people, human and monster both. They marched up to the government building. A man stepped out.

“What is it you want?” he asked, visibly shaking. Other government officials were coming out too. They were looking at the crowd, at the numbers, but more than anything, they were looking at the humans that had chosen to stand with the monsters.

“We want to end the inequality,” Kip said, stepping forward with Wallace at his side. It had been decided earlier that Kip would speak for them. He was the best at organizing his thoughts and speaking. “We want monsters to not be treated like second class citizens.”

“Perhaps you’d best come inside,” the man sighed. He was still visibly shaking.

“We’re not going to hurt you,” Wallace said quietly. “None of us want violence. We just want to talk.”

“You’ll have to excuse me,” the man laughed nervously. “We’ve been protected from monsters all this time. I’ve never had to deal with monsters without protection before.”

“We’re not violent,” Kip cut in. “We’re the same as humans; we just have powers.”

“Fine. So what exactly do you want to end?”

“Monsters need social services a lot more often than humans do, but because of the way the laws work it’s much harder to get them any help they need,” Wallace started. He figured he’d start with the easiest. The man nodded, writing it down and made a noise for them to continue.

“There’s experimentation on monsters happening and that needs to stop,” Kip said, voice tight. The man looked up at that, gave Kip an appraising look, but wrote it down.

And so it continued, for over an hour. Wallace and Kip took turns outlining the changes that needed to happen so that monsters wouldn’t be treated like second class citizens anymore. The man wrote down everything they said. Finally, they stood up to leave.

“You know this won’t happen all at once?” the man asked them. “It’ll take time to go through the laws and change them, and that’s assuming everyone in the government agrees to change them.”

“They have to,” Kip said. “Monsters shouldn’t be discriminated against anymore.”

“We can always come back to plead our case,” Wallace added.

The man nodded. Wallace and Kip left the building. The humans and monsters cheered. The government officials looked defeated.

***

Over the course of the next few months, Kip spent a lot of time going back and forth to District A. Sometimes Wallace went with him, but Wallace spent most of his time in District C, organizing new social programs for monsters. Since District C was the district with near equal amounts of humans and monsters, it would be an experimental area, to see if the changing laws would really work.

Because District C had better social programs for monsters, monsters began flooding in. Wallace’s biggest challenge at first was finding decent housing for everyone. His job was made easier by the fact that the first laws to be changed were the ones that restricted monster access to social programs.

The first, of course, except for the law banning experimentation on monsters, with the addition of steep penalties for breaking it. Kip told Wallace that there was an ongoing investigation into all branches of the government to wipe out anyone involved in illegal experimentation. The courts were apparently being kept busy with everyone found.

Progress was slow, there was no doubt about that. Decades of oppression couldn’t be reversed overnight. Humans were still afraid of monsters, and monsters still weren’t allowed in District A except for a few special cases where monsters were brought in to consult on the new laws. This was mostly Kip and anyone Kip decided needed to come with him. Kip made it a habit to bring a different person with a different experience with him every time, to make sure the government knew exactly how deep the problem of discrimination went.

Monsters still had the worse deal, but Wallace had a lot of hope for the future. He wasn’t the only one. Everyone he talked to, whether it was new arrivals to District C or old residents, expressed optimism for the direction things were going. After all, things had been the same for so long that everyone was grateful for any change. Wallace feared that someday the rate of change would slow down, before all the changes that needed to happen were made. For now, though, things were looking up.

It would be a slow change over many years, and it would take a lot of work on both monster and human parts, but things were starting to go in the right direction. Best of all, Wallace’s working friendship, working relationship, with Kip was no longer illegal.

The world was a bright place.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whoo boy. So this fic is functionally done! I should be uploading an epilogue in the next few days to wrap up all the loose ends, but other than that I am done. I will say my final goodbyes and any future for this world I’ve created in the next update.


	18. Chapter 18

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Last chapter! This story is finally finished!

_Almost a year later…_

“Going back to District A?” Wallace called from the table in Kip, Molly, and Roy’s apartment.

“Yeah. We’re working on a law to prevent discrimination against monsters in getting jobs,” Kip called over his shoulder. “You staying here?”

“Don’t I always?”

Since Kip still spent a lot of time travelling, Wallace had picked up the habit of staying with Molly and Roy while he was away. Of course, when Kip was in District C, he usually stayed with Wallace in his apartment.

“I won’t be gone long this time, just a few days,” Kip said, walking back to give Wallace a hug and a kiss on the cheek. “I’ll be back soon, Wally.”

“Yeah, yeah, I know. You’re the one who has to speak for the monsters, I get it,” Wallace grinned.

“I really do need to get going, though,” Kip sighed. “See you in a few days.”

“Hey Kip?” Wallace called as Kip reached the door. “How are you doing with that pet project of yours? Changing the laws about monster-human couples adopting?”

“It’s slow going,” Kip said quietly, before breaking into a grin. “But it’s definitely going. Why do you ask?”

“Just curious,” Wallace answered, knowing Kip could see what he really meant. Kip grinned, and a faint blue blush came into his cheeks.

“We can talk about it when I get back.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just so all of you know, this was supposed to be 5 chapters max. I was just supposed to deal with my Kiplace feels. So when I got to about chapter 10 and realized I had no idea where I was going with this…I kind of took a long hiatus. I am so grateful to all of you who have been following. I might write some more one shots based off this fic in the future, but for now I’m going to let it lie.


End file.
